Thanks to China, Freedom of Expression is at Risk in Hollywood

Due to the recent controversy involving Chloe Zhao and China, I am reposting my 08.24.20 piece on Chinese censorship and what’s at stake

China is a threat to the U.S. and the world if you don’t truly believe that, after everything that has happened in 2020, then you might as well stop reading this right now. Can Hollywood stop pretending that it’s bowing down to Chinese demands is not a problem? If you’re going to stand for civil rights then you can’t also be in bed with an authoritarian regime that has millions in prison camps, murders innocent journalists, silences protestors, punishes doctors for telling the truth, and stifles freedom of speech. It’s an inconvenient truth. If you stand for human rights, then you should stand with it EVERYWHERE.

This isn’t a first time incident for Hollywood either, they did the exact same thing in the 1930s when it didn’t want to upset Hitler or else they’d lose access to the German film market which was one of the largest film markets outside the U.S. Apparently we are doomed to make the same fatal mistakes – just to make a buck.

The examples are endless, with not hundreds, but thousands of documented examples of censored scenes in American movies. Earlier this year, the upcoming Top Gun sequel, this one titled “Maverick,” removed the Japanese and Taiwanese flags from Tom Cruise’s iconic jacket. And remember when Disney shrunk black actor John Boyega from “The Force Awakens” poster to appease Chinese authorities?

The “China problem” is very much present in today’s American film landscape, which has stopped trying to shape how the world sees the United States and is more interested in appeasing the current global power politics. Hollywood is now remarkably timid on some issues, and it has gone altogether silent about offending their Chinese interests because, well, frankly, China is starting to exhort an all-too-powerful hold on the entire industry.

Earlier this week, a new report found only reinforced this Chinese assault on American movies. According to The Guardian:

“The 94-page study, from the literary and human rights group Pen America, details the many ways that studios and film-makers continue to change “cast, plot, dialogue and settings” in an “effort to avoid antagonizing Chinese officials” in films including Iron Man 3, World War Z and the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick.“The Chinese Communist Party is increasingly shaping what global audiences see,” said James Tager, deputy director of free expression research and policy at Pen America, also a lead author of the report. “While we are all well aware of the strict controls that China’s government maintains over dissent, independent thought and creativity within its own borders, the long arm of Chinese censorship – powered by vast economic incentives – has also reached deep into Hollywood, shaping perceptions, inculcating sensitivities and reshaping the bounds of what can be shown, said and told.”

The report recommends that “Hollywood studios commit to publicly sharing information on all censorship requests received by government regulators for their films”. “Many more scripts never see the light of day because writers and producers know not to test the limits,” the attorney general, William Barr, said in July. “Chinese government censors don’t need to say a word because Hollywood is doing their work for them. This is a massive propaganda coup for the Chinese Communist party.”

Working hand-in-hand with the Chinese government, Hollywood studios are now making sure that their movies don’t have any sort of offensive material that could jeopardize the Chinese box office intake, which, it turns out, is now larger and more profitable than the American one. This form of censorship has become a very dangerous game of Russian roulette as Beijing has slowly become the master puppeteers of the American blockbuster. Yes, we’re a long way from Martin Scorsese’s anti-China government film “Kundun,” which, when released in 1997, criticized the CCP and supported the fate of Tibet. Today, the market power of China is making studios and creatives think twice about producing overtly political messaging in their films. It’s downright infuriating to behold.

It wasn’t just “Kundun,” the 1990s saw a slew of studio films dealing with the history and people of Tibet, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a single film dealing with that topic today. The people of Tibet have been isolated, backstabbed, in favor of greed. Also quite curiously, why hasn’t there been an American film made about the horrific Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989? The answer is obvious. Instead, we have films like “Transformers: Age of Extinction“ being cited by Variety as “a splendidly patriotic film, if you happen to be Chinese.”

Hollywood studios are also increasingly nervous about having Chinese villains due to political pressure. Hell, they're not "afraid of portraying China in a bad light" so much as they've stopped doing it entirely. What this also elides is the other stuff that comes along as part and parcel of not upsetting China:

• Don't include references to ghosts or spirits of the dead in any form

• Including gay characters involves making sure any references to their sexuality can be cut or edited for the Chinese release. In other words, it's okay to have gay characters, so long as it's easy to edit the film to make them not-gay (or more likely no references to their sexuality at all by removing scenes that were specifically intended to be removable).

• Don't hire actors who China doesn't like. For example, World War Z was banned in China because the outbreak started in China, but also because it starred Brad Pitt, who's banned for starring in "Seven Years in Tibet". Ditto Richard Gere, a devout Buddhist who has criticized China’s treatment of Tibet in the past. In June, Richard Gere appeared before the US Senate to warn about the dangers of letting China control content. “The combination of Chinese censorship, coupled with American film studios’ desire to access China’s market, can lead to self-censorship and overlooking social issues that great American films once addressed,” he said.

Hollywood elites pretend to be liberal rebels fighting the good fight, but when boldness affects their bank account they shut up and pretend not to know things. Very few have the strength of character to stand up and say “this is not right.”

Ultimately, the Chinese takeover of this beloved American industry really matters because it sends the poisonous message that censorship is okay, that you can appease and bow down to an authoritarian regime by stifling the creative process just to get extra bucks. In turn, this sets a precedent for total and unequivocal abidance to the Chinese Communist Party, a positive acknowledgment of their toxic ideals and twistedly undemocratic laws. If you care and are willing to fight, on issues as homophobia, racism, democracy, and freedom of expression then you should be damn-near frightened by the CCP takeover of the industry.