For too long, Hollywood, American corporations, and even American sports (see: NBA) have self-censored to appease communist China. Secretary of State Mike Pompe says that era needs to end.
Speaking at the Nixon Library in California, Pompeo gave a lengthy speech about the dangers of the United States doing anything and everything possible to squeeze cheap dollars out of the Chinese Communist regime:
In Hollywood, not too far from here – the epicenter of American creative freedom, and self-appointed arbiters of social justice – self-censors even the most mildly unfavorable reference to China.
This corporate acquiescence to the CCP happens all over the world, too.
And how has this corporate fealty worked? Is its flattery rewarded? I’ll give you a quote from the speech that General Barr gave, Attorney General Barr. In a speech last week, he said that “The ultimate ambition of China’s rulers isn’t to trade with the United States. It is to raid the United States.”
China ripped off our prized intellectual property and trade secrets, causing millions of jobs all across America.
It sucked supply chains away from America, and then added a widget made of slave labor.
It made the world’s key waterways less safe for international commerce.
Pompeo then quoted former President Richard Nixon, who feared that opening China up to the rest of the world would create a “Frankenstein” monster.
Pompeo’s warnings about China followed a recent speech by Attorney General William Barr, who condemned Hollywood and Disney’s appeasement of China through self-censorship.
“If Disney and other American corporations continue to bow to Beijing, they risk undermining both their own future competitiveness and prosperity, as well as the classical liberal order that has allowed them to thrive,” Barr said.
Movie studios have gone to great lengths to appeal to Chinese audiences by presenting the country as a technologically advanced superpower, as in the cases of “The Martian,” “2012,” “Gravity,” and “Looper.” Beyond that, some movies have been subjected to self-censorship, sometimes changing whole plotlines in order to break into the Chinese market.
“When the creators of ‘Pixels’ wanted to show aliens blasting a hole in the Great Wall of China, Sony executives worried that the scene might prevent the 2015 movie’s release in China, leaked studio emails show. They blew up the Taj Mahal instead,” reported The New York Times. “In the 2016 movie ‘Doctor Strange,’ the Ancient One is Celtic, played by the white actress Tilda Swinton. Moviemakers decided to change the character’s ethnicity early in the process, reportedly to avoid offending the Chinese government.”
Controversy over Hollywood’s capitulation to China reached a fever pitch in 2019, when it appeared that the movie “Top Gun: Maverick” might have edited Tom Cruise’s iconic patch-laden flight jacket to exclude the Japanese and Taiwanese flags.
However, despite Hollywood’s repeated attempts to capitalize on China, the industry’s methods do not appear to be working. Just last year, Hollywood saw its worst box office performance in over a decade in China.
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