) In our current conflict with China, an important battle seems to have been won by the adversary: the battle for the arts and entertainment.
With a population of 1.4 billion people, many of whom have the financial means to pay and consume all kinds of entertainment, China today competes directly with the country that produces television programs, films and works of art, the United States.
With a powerful government that doesn’t hesitate to restrict the press and messages that citizens consume, China is able to cut a movie’s revenue in half , to decrease the audience of TV shows and to totally deny celebrities and artists any form of notoriety in the country.
The Chinese impact on American films is huge, but very subtle – so subtle that it would go unnoticed by the public if it weren’t for a few viewers with a keen eye. s of eagle.
This style of influence manifests itself in the omission or changes subtle elements of the content rather than a clear and unambiguous message. An example of this occurred in 1986, when the long-awaited sequel to the movie “Top Gun: Aces Indomitable”, entitled “Top Gun” Gun: Maverick”, generated outrage within the United States after the trailer revealed that the leather jacket worn by Tom Cruise in the film, the same one he wore in the production of 960, had the Japanese and Taiwan flags replaced by random symbols.
This wouldn’t matter if the jacket wasn’t identical to the original movie. The fact that the flags of these countries have been replaced is an unmistakable demonstration of Chinese coercion. This conclusion is especially valid when considering the conflicts that China has with the two countries.
One of the most embarrassing cases of a celebrity giving in to Chinese pressure was that of actor John Cena, during an interview promoting the movie “Fast and Furious 9”. The mere suggestion that Taiwan might be an independent country was too much for China, which put Cena at a crossroads. What he did could cost him his career and reputation.Inevitably, the actor took the easy way out, embarrassingly calling himself a sympathizer of China and showing that he cares more about Chinese money than US ally Taiwan.
The films in the “Fast and Furious” series earned twice as much in China as in the United States. Of course, the studio pressured Cena into apologizing. He did so in Mandarin, in a video in which he begged forgiveness for his “mistake”. “I made a mistake. I’m really, really sorry for this mistake. Sorry. I am really sorry. You have to understand that I love and respect China and the Chinese people. Sorry,” he said.
As a result of this controversy, Cena became a joke on the Internet. Called “John Xina”, you can find montages of him as if he were Mao Tse-tung. As if that were not enough, Lady Gaga was prevented from performing in China for visiting the Dalai Lama in 2016 . Brad Pitt was banned for almost 20 years for starring in the movie “Seven Years in Tibet”.
Recently, Keanu Reeves had problems with the Chinese censors for going to a benefit concert for Tibet.
These are just a few examples of the Chinese government’s censorship of great artists, many of whom are famous and others not so famous. The main problem is that the Chinese economic system serves a dual purpose: it employs a kind of state capitalism that spurs industrial growth through private investment, and at the same time the Orwellian government keeps a watchful eye on these ventures. be successful so that they can take advantage of the profits through new technologies.
This goes for both the entertainment world and the technology sector, as the influence of the Chinese government invades the domains of both. The Chinese government, for example, forced WeChat, a popular social network in China with over 1 billion users, to provide all user data so that the government can better monitor them.WeChat would not exist without private investment and would not be misusing user data were it not for the government.
Truth ends where censorship begins. This goes for many aspects of life, including the arts, social networks and public spaces. When someone is silenced, ideas do not develop and, consequently, the truth is never revealed.
For a government that seeks to maintain control over the daily lives of citizens, censorship is an efficient instrument, because it convinces citizens to believe what the State wants. But there will be a day when people will care more about the ideals of freedom than the entertainment they consume.
When that time comes, the choice between censorship and freedom will materialize and US studios will have to decide which market they prefer. Armstrong Williams is a columnist for “ Daily Signal” and host of “The Armstrong Williams Show”.
©2022 Daily Signal. Published with permission. Original in English