The American Film Industry’s Relationship with China Must End

Much of contemporary American culture is toxic. Our people consume media from almost every medium that is decadent, licentious, and encourages resentment. Children’s cartoons parrot the Leftist intelligentsia’s talking points to indoctrinate children, widely popular social media platforms tacitly endorse the sexualization of minors, and some of the most circulated and in-demand content is patently neurotic and indulgent. 

These are not signs of a healthy society. A culture that rewards bad behavior and destructive ideologies will inherently encourage their perpetuation. 

Another instance of this is the relationship between Hollywood and the Chinese Communist Party. China has a population of over one billion people, a massive audience base that film studios can reach if they agree to adhere to the Chinese government restrictions. To get this international audience, studios censor American cinema to increase their overall profits.. It just so happens that the audience they’re pandering to is a genocidal regime with minimal regard for human life. 

China’s role in the American film industry is a flagrant form of cultural subterfuge while posing an almost existential threat to the sovereignty of American institutions. An alarming amount of decisions made by the film industry are made with the concerns of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people at the forefront of producers’ minds.

Film is a primarily visual medium that simultaneously stimulates multiple senses. The majority of the storytelling in a movie is done through the visual depiction of scenarios. This is why American filmmakers have been ensuring the things depicted in their products don’t offend the sensibilities of the Chinese government or the Chinese customer base. And in many cases, it results in Hollywood peddling propaganda across the globe on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. 

In years past, Marvel Studios drastically altered critical aspects of their films in order to ensure they didn’t run into trouble with the Chinese government when trying to release the films in the country. Lucasfilms even minimized the presence of a black character on a Chinese promotional poster for the seventh “Star Wars” film. Both of these studios generate some of the most popular content across the globe, and both are subsidiaries of Walt Disney Studios. Walt Disney Studios, notoriously, filmed the 2020 live-action Mulan remake in China’s Xinjiang province where the Chinese government runs concentration camps. 

In the upcoming film, Top Gun: Maverick, the studio removed the flags of Taiwan and Japan from Maverick’s flight jacket, and in the 2012 remake of Red Dawn, the film’s bad guys were retroactively made into North Koreans to not offend China. 

Recently, while promoting F9, the 9th installment of the Fast and the Furious franchise, on a Taiwanese cable network, John Cena referred to Taiwan as a country. He later posted a video of himself speaking Chinese in which he apologized for categorizing Taiwan that way. In the video, Cena said, “I’m very, very sorry about my mistake. I apologize, I apologize, I’m very sorry. You must understand that I really love, really respect China and the Chinese people. My apologies.”

In April of 2020, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced the Stopping Censorship, Restoring Integrity, Protecting Talkies Act (SCRIPT) Act. This bill’s aims to prevent Hollywood studios from receiving support from the Department of Defense if they knowingly censor their films to be shown in China. Senator Cruz’s bill is a great example of how Americans can fight back against our enemies infiltrating and usurping our institutions.

It is unlikely to be codified into law, given the balance of power currently in the Senate, but that doesn’t mean we ought not try.

The relationship between Communist China and Hollywood must end if America is to have a culture that is free from self-loathing.