Freedom for immigrants in the west undermined by "business at all

[Greg.D.]

I hate this kind of thing. England, Canada, U.S. will be next:

 

Chinese-Canadians Fear China’s Rising Clout Is Muzzling Them

 

TORONTO — Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is due in China on Tuesday for a much anticipated visit, hoping to reset what had been an up-and-down relationship under the previous government. Closer ties, Mr. Trudeau says, would release untapped prosperity at home and promote Canadian values like good governance and the rule of law in China.

But many Chinese-Canadians say the opposite is happening. They say the growing economic clout wielded in Canada by China, Canada’s largest trading partner after the United States, is leading to an erosion of their own freedom — specifically their freedom to speak openly about China’s authoritarian state. Journalists who write for the many Chinese-language publications in Canada, along with activists and others, say they are under increasing pressure to promote the interests of the Chinese government.

 

 

“China is not shy about using overseas Chinese communities to advance its interests abroad,” said Minxin Pei, an expert on Chinese politics at Claremont McKenna College in California. “What’s brilliant about the Chinese government’s interest strategy is that it exploits the freedoms of Western democracies against Western democracies.”

 

In general, the overall tolerance for authoritarian regimes worries me.

[Randy W]

They have a lot of clout with Hollywood also. That subject is touched upon in this thread -

Matt Damon defends the Great Wall from monsters, especially in the 60 Minutes video at around 6:30

[Randy W]

from NPR

 

How China's Censors Influence Hollywood

 

Age of Ultron, the new Avengers movie, kicked off the summer blockbuster season in China last week and already has taken in more than $150 million. Fast and Furious 7has finished up its run, pulling in more than $388 million — more than it made in the U.S. — and becoming China's all-time box-office champ.

Those huge box-office numbers underscore just how essential the Chinese market has become to Hollywood's bottom line. Because money is power, that also means the Communist Party has increasing influence over how some Hollywood movies are made and how they portray China.

China's government chooses which movies can be shown in what is now the world's second-biggest cinema market, so many filmmakers have to think more carefully about how to attract Chinese audiences and not offend the country's censors, according to scholars and theater owners.

 

[Randy W]

China’s Influence on Hollywood Grows

Wanda’s interest in Paramount stake comes amid flood of Chinese money reshaping U.S. movie industry

 

 

[Greg.D.]

Soft power.

 

They want control of the truth.

 

I am stumped at the primitive thinking of businesses that believe they "must be in the China market" and then go there and lose their dignity and IP.

 

Then, cinema, presumably an important art form, will sacrifice all (if they had any) commitment to speaking to the important issues because they have to be in the China market, too. Never mind that they survived without the China market since forever.

 

But, I guess we even had to be dragged kicking and screaming into WW II to turn the tide against authoritarian regimes.

[tsap seui]

This sounds a lil' bit like the outcry when the Japanese was buying up all of the land, and businesses in America back in whatever year it was (I was stoned through those years I think). My Gawd, people were jumpin' out of winders in New York City and Time magazine and the Washington Post were all crying the fucking end is near !!!. It was a real calamity, the country was covered by Japanese tourists as their wing wang was stronger than our peso and those flocking hordes of pesky Japanese with all of their money were gonna pay TOP DOLLAR to buy us out, lock stock, and cracker barrel and we'd lose our country.

 

Why, hit was so bad, I am here to honestly testify...even I thought about taking more drugs ( you know, to ease the pain). Thing was, at that time I was already eating 10 to 12 Quaalude 714's a day (enough to kill a freakin' horse)...I went out and bought an illegal "automatic" M-16 and sat on my porch eatin' 714's and saying, "come on ya sunsabitches, I'll send ya to the lowering sun if you try and give me top dollar for my house (I wanted to sell at a huge discount and lose my ass like all of my neighbors were) !!!!"

 

Now, my memory ain't what it should be from all them 714's, pot, coke, excessive sex with many questionable wimmin of whom I know not their names, so, I must axe yawl the question....where the hell are those gal'damn Japanese who were gonna buy Uncle Sammy out AND rule the stinkin' world ? WARE the hell are they now ???? I'm sittin' in my lawn chair inside my rusted out '52 DeSoto, on it's blocks in my front yard, and I've got my shotgun in one hand and a copy of Gideon's Bible (that I stole from a HollarDay Inn back in 1972) in the other hand...whare the hell are them Japanese that are supposed to rule the world????

 

Oh wait !!! Someone who wasn't stoned at the time told me they had their own "depression" or whatever the hell them Wall Street shysters call it and they went broke...like us...and they sold a lot of that crap they bought from us at less than what WE had it on the market for. Sorta like magic ain't it...maybe God IS on our side. Or is it just the simple fact that "what goes up, must come down, spinning wheel got to go round" (as David Clayton Thomas so aptly sang it with Blood, Sweat, and Tears)?

 

Does anyone REALLY think the Chinese are more immune to the laws of financial abundance and the inevitable collapse from rising too fast with stupid politicians at the controls like we here in America have done to ourselves, and even the powerful Japanese did to themselves? All ya gotta do is look at what we did to ourselves (and still are), and look at where the hell the Japanese (that were gonna buy up all of America) are today.

[Randy W]

What's different is the Chinese censors, and the influence they can wield by using our freedoms against us. "Because money is power, that also means the Communist Party has increasing influence over how some Hollywood movies are made and how they portray China."

 

Enjoy your lawn chair - you've got some more sitting to do.

[tsap seui]

What's different is the Chinese censors, and the influence they can wield by using our freedoms against us. "Because money is power, that also means the Communist Party has increasing influence over how some Hollywood movies are made and how they portray China."

 

Enjoy your lawn chair - you've got some more sitting to do.

Heck, everybody uses our freedoms against us. Look at 9 one one...and we're letting at least 10,000 folks in completely un-vetted now. A few movies ain't gonna hurt us anymore than what we already allow to happen to us. I saw the preview to the wall movie and seemed really interesting until we saw that it was some freaklin' dumassed monster movie. Yimou should have stuck with Hero movies.

 

My lawn chair? That lawn chair will be moving to Fushun in December if the wrong person gets elected. I don't think the Japanese are coming anyhow as it is China's turn to play king for a day.

[Greg.D.]

Actually, my point wasn't Chinese buying companies here, but about how they will threaten to remove advertising or close access to the Chinese market if they don't get the last editorial say.

 

They post their propaganda in FB, cctv English version, and many English language media formats. That is to say, media not subject to government censorship but apparently available to the highest bidder. That's using our freedoms against us. They use threats to north american-based journalists (writing in Chinese language newspapers), threats against their family in China, to get their way with regard to what western-based people can read.

 

 

From the above article:

"In June, during a news conference in Ottawa, China’s visiting foreign minister, Wang Yi, berated a Canadian reporter for asking Mr. Dion a question about human rights in China. “You have no right to speak of this,” Mr. Wang said."

 

And that went unchecked. Canada is just the latest bend over for the RMB.

 

Trudeau in China this week, promising full release and happy endings to "all comers".

[Randy W]

. . . and Australia in the NY Times Op-Ed

 

Australia Needs the United States to Keep China in Check

 

A different kind of occasion had been planned this week at the hall: a memorial concert for the 40th anniversary of the death of Mao Zedong, a man responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people.

The event was organized by Chinese-Australians and businesses intent on currying favor with the government in Beijing. Following protests from other Chinese-Australian groups and concern from the police about public safety, the concert was canceled, as was a similar one scheduled in Melbourne.

The episode was a vivid illustration of the increasingly fraught nature of the Australian debate on relations with China. Some businesses, community groups and politicians want to shift Australia toward a closer relationship with Beijing. Other Australians wary of Beijing’s growing influence in the region are pushing back.

. . .

Australians can now read the Communist Party line in monthly inserts placed in leading newspapers by a Chinese government-backed media group. Chinese-language news outlets in Australia, once loud and diverse, are increasingly wary of angering Beijing.

 

[Greg.D.]

I loved this op-Ed but hadn't found time to post it. Thanks again, Randy.

 

Finally, somebody saying what I've thought all along: sharing a world view might be more important than the size of a business deal, esp when such deals are probably strategically designed to gain import structural influence in the other country.

 

For now, seems like Oz is pushing back at PRC, almost too late, maybe.

[Greg.D.]

Will China soon control American movies?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/will-china-soon-control-american-movies/

 

 

There is growing concern that Chinese government influence over Western media organizations will lead to direct censorship or pressure to self-censor content to Beijing’s liking. This concern will only grow due to a surge of Chinese investment in the United States. Over the past five years, Chinese investment here has grown from $2 billion per year to an estimated $20 billion this year. This growth is significant given that Chinese companies are effectively controlled — whether through state ownership or strict direction — by Beijing.

 

 

It should be no surprise that a major focus of China’s investment in the United States is media companies, which produce the news and entertainment that so often shape our understanding of the world. One Chinese company, Dalian Wanda, has purchased the Hollywood movie studio Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 billion and is now seeking a 49 percent stake in Paramount Pictures, as well as purchases of America’s two largest movie theater chains: AMC and Carmike Cinemas. Wanda’s goal is to control 20 percent of the global box office by 2020 — and it may reach that threshold sooner. This doesn’t include other Chinese investments in film studios, which would push the total share of Chinese box office control even higher.

 

Why should we be concerned? By controlling the financing and distribution of American movies, and subjecting them to censorship to gain access to the Chinese market, Beijing could effectively dictate what is and isn’t made — providing powerful control over America’s greatest cultural exports.

 

 

First, Congress and the Obama administration should consider expanding the charter for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to cover strategic “soft power” sectors, allowing the committee to review how foreign ownership from autocratic regimes might restrict creative freedom.

 

Second, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, originally passed in 1939 to address concerns about Soviet and Nazi propaganda, should be updated to consider the role of foreign censorship and influence in U.S. media ownership. A Justice Department Inspector General report released this month called on the department to update its FARA enforcement strategy, specifically citing foreign media operations, among others, as entities that should be covered by disclosure and reporting requirements, as well as federal civil investigative demand authority.

 

And finally, recent provisions in the annual defense and intelligence authorization bills before Congress to create an entity in government to monitor and respond to foreign propaganda and misinformation should be expanded to cover authoritarian foreign ownership of U.S. media.

[Randy W]

An interesting and fairly thorough article in the Guardian (UK) about China and Hong Kong film making and censorship, and a little of the history

 

 

'No ghosts. No gay love stories. No nudity': tales of film-making in China

As Hollywood continues its courtship of China, it can learn all about cultural differences and censorship from the Hong Kong film-makers who went there first

Ten Years – the terrifying vision of Hong Kong that Beijing wants obscured

Ten Years is an award-winning political satire from Hong Kong, whose five directors have all been banned from China. Photograph: Andy Wong/AFP/Getty Images

 

To break into the mainland market, it had three different endings for the censors to choose from. “In a mainland China movie, you cannot have a bad guy who gets away with his crimes,” explains film-maker Jevons Au. “Multiple endings to suit the mainland market used to be OK. No more. Now, if you want to distribute in China, you must have only one approved ending worldwide. You can step on the line. But you cannot cross it.”

. . .

“For us, it is complicated,” says Au. “The uniqueness of Hong Kong is our freedom of speech, of creativity, of expression. You can do and say anything you want. To make a co-production with China, you have to follow ever stricter rules: half of the cast and crew has to be Chinese. The censors have the last word. Crime stories cannot have too many details. Stories of corruption must end with the bad guy behind bars. No ghosts. No gay love stories. No religion. No nudity. No politics…” He counts on his fingers. “It’s kind of a trap. The moment you fall into it, you change. You hurt your creativity.”

. . .

You have to try to understand China’s censorship,” says Wong. “In Hong Kong you have category I, II and III movies. In China, there is no such system. So you must make movies that a five year old can watch without feeling scared. Can you make a movie with a bad cop in it in China? Of course. But then he has to end up in jail. Can you have much blood? No. A kid is going to see it. Foreigners who want to make movies in China need to understand the country first.”

“Say you want to make a film about corruption,” Wong continues. “It’s a sensitive theme. But the regulations are blurry, you can tackle things in a different way: shoot a film where the corruption is in America, not in China. Then it’s OK. As an artist, you must find ways of getting around it.”

Another limitation is established by Chinese moviegoers’ own tastes. Roger Garcia, executive director of the Hong Kong film festival, says: “In China, you are making either a romance or a big special-effects movie. If you want to do horror, or other genres, you cannot be in China. You can make a budget sci-fi movie in Hollywood, but Chinese audiences will not like that. They like huge, costly productions. So I think that China should not be the total sum of everything, it is a mistake. It is limiting. For Hong Kong, it was a mistake to obsess about China. And things are changing now that Hollywood is doing the same.”

. . .

“Does it mean compromises? Yes, very many. But the alternative is no movie in China. There are many political issues that China is still stuck with, because it has an old-fashioned system of government, and even if there is more freedom than there used to be, the Communist party is unable to relax. Yet you see it very clearly – everybody is ready to shut up to make money.”

 

[Randy W]

in the NY Times

 

In Australia, Staying Loyal to Taiwan Can Mean Losing a Job

 

During her second week waitressing at a barbecue restaurant in Sydney, a customer asked Yating Yang if she was Chinese. “No, I’m Taiwanese,” she said.

Her boss, who was from mainland China, never gave her another shift.

Man-Tzu Tuan said her loyalty test came even sooner: on her first day at a hot pot restaurant in a comfortable Sydney suburb. “Is Taiwan part of China?” her manager asked in Mandarin over a walkie talkie. “No, definitely not,” she said.

A half-hour later, she was fired.

China’s assertiveness has already set off alarms in Australia, with officials warning that Beijing has been meddling in Australian politics more than the public realizes. But the experiences of Ms. Yang and Ms. Tuan — along with many others — reveal how Chinese nationalism is also affecting private enterprise and, in some cases, leading to accusations of discrimination.