China has threatened to retaliate if The 10 Conditions of Love, a documentary  about World Uyghur Congress president Rebiya Kadeer, is screened as part of the  Kaohsiung Film Festival. Beijing has also banned a new book by Taiwanese writer  Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) about the tumult of 1949, when Communist rebels defeated the  Nationalist government and forced the latter to retreat to Taiwan. China may be  shaping as a great power, but such behavior betrays its inability to rise above  autocratic impulses. 
The content of films and books and how it is transmitted are matters of  freedom of expression. If China insists on putting economic pressure on Taiwan  over legitimate subjects of debate, its efforts will backfire by widening the  political gap between the two sides.