"The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru," a documentary on the heroic rescue of British prisoners of war (POWs) by Chinese fishermen during World War II, premiered Friday at the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival.
The 123-minute documentary features extensive interviews with survivors and their descendants in China's Zhoushan Islands and Hong Kong, as well as in Britain, the United States and Japan.
In October 1942, "Lisbon Maru," a cargo vessel requisitioned by the Japanese army to carry over 1,800 British POWs from Hong Kong to Japan, was sunk by the U.S. army off the Zhoushan Islands in China's Zhejiang Province. Local fishermen risked their lives to rescue over 300 POWs.
Denise Wynne, daughter of Dennis Morley, one of the survivors, was tearful after watching the documentary.
"I just think it's an amazing film and it should be shared all over the world and hopefully promote peace. Because that was just a terrible thing to happen. It should never happen again," said 75-year-old Wynne.
Tony Banham, the historian advising the makers of the film, also the author of the Sinking of Lisbon Maru, says one of the biggest challenges was getting the facts right given most witnesses have passed away.
"If you want a really, really accurate description of any event, you have to interview quite a lot of people, and also find documents from the period such as letters, diaries, anything that might have been written closer to the time, to enable you to focus on what really happened rather than people's memories," Banham said.
The producer and director of the documentary, Fang Li, is also an ocean exploration expert who located the sunken ship's location in 2016. Upon learning that few people know about the historical episode, he became resolute in his determination to make the film.
The documentary took about eight years to finish, as the production team interviewed more than 110 families of the British prisoners.
"When I found the sunken ship and I heard that there were only two people left who experienced the tragedy, since my second profession was filmmaking, I instinctively felt that if we didn't salvage the history, it would be lost forever. So it was just an instinct. I had no experience in documentary filmmaking or directing, and what I wanted was just to preserve the history," said Fang.
After the premiere, the film is scheduled for release to the general public later this year.
Documentary on Lisbon Maru rescue premiered in Shanghai
Documentary on Lisbon Maru rescue premiers in Shanghai
China is to impose a matching 34 percent tariffs on all U.S. imports, plus export controls, and trade restrictions, in response to the U.S. move to impose a 34 percent "reciprocal tariff" on Chinese imports, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce announced on Friday.
The spokesperson said that the U.S. imposition of so-called "reciprocal tariffs" seriously violates WTO rules, harms the legitimate rights and interests of the WTO members, and undermines the multilateral trade system and global economic order.
Calling it a typical act of unilateral bullying that threatens global trade stability, China has filed a complaint against the U.S. move under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council announced on Friday that the imposition of the 34-percent tariffs on all products imported from the United States would take effect on 12:01, April 10, while the U.S. imposition is set to take effect on April 9.
Also on Friday, the Ministry of Commerce issued announcement No.18 of 2025, imposing export controls on seven types of middle-heavy rare earth elements, including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium.
The Ministry of Commerce also issued announcement No.21 of 2025, adding 16 U.S. military-related entities to the export control list, prohibiting the export of dual-use items to these entities.
The work mechanism for the unreliable entity list issued announcement No.7 of 2025, which added 11 U.S. companies on the unreliable entity list, prohibiting them from engaging in import and export activities related to China, and prohibiting them from making new investments in China.
The Ministry of Commerce issued announcements No.19 and No.20 of 2025, launching an anti-dumping investigation into imported medical CT tubes originating from the U.S. and other regions, and initiating China's first industry competitiveness investigation into imported medical CT tubes.
Also on Friday, the General Administration of Customs issued announcements No.54 and No.55, stating that in order to protect the health of Chinese consumers and ensure the safety of China's livestock production, it has decided to suspend the qualification of one U.S. company for exporting sorghum to China, suspend the qualification of three U.S. companies for exporting poultry bone meal to China, and suspend the export of poultry products to China from two U.S. companies, as their imports are found problematic in the inspection and quarantine.
China to control export, restrict trade with US plus tariffs
