In response to the Trump administration’s latest round of tariffs on Chinese products, the China Film Administration has announced that it will reduce the number of American films allowed to be shown in Chinese theaters.
To recap: while the Trump administration put a 90 day pause on its planned tariffs to 75 other countries, the tariffs on China were increased to 125%.
This angered the Chinese government, who had already responded to earlier tariffs by raising their own tariffs on American imports to 84%. The targeting of Hollywood films is just part of a broader response to the American tariffs.
China is the second most profitable market for Hollywood, so this will definitely affect the bottom line of several tentpole films going forward. It is also likely that producers will stop censoring their directors and writers in order to gain access to the Chinese market.
Censorship is a major problem in China, and it has greatly influenced the kind of stories that artists in Hollywood are able to tell. In 2016, China posted updated guidelines banning television shows and movies that promoted “Western lifestyles” such as showing cleavage, smoking, and positive depictions of LGBT+ characters.
When Disney’s Pixar released Lightyear, it was banned in China due to a scene where two lesbians kiss. This caused some Hollywood producers to be nervous about releasing films with gay content in the international market. Warner Brothers removed six seconds from Secrets of Dumbledore due to gay content.
The censorship extends beyond sexual themes, though. Top Gun: Maverick infamously removed a Taiwanese flag from the film’s trailer, and a Tibetan character was “whitewashed” in Dr. Strange due to pressure from Chinese censors.
It is not just the American film market that was being censored by China. Last week, we covered the chilling attempt by Chinese censors to remove themes of rebellion from anime from Japan.
Being cut off from the Chinese market will certainly reduce the amount of income for big tentpole films, but it will also ease pressure on scriptwriters who fear being censored due to Chinese censors.
