Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) has introduced a bill that would stop federal agencies from assisting Hollywood studios that co-produce films with a Chinese company that are subject to the Chinese Communist Party’s content restrictions.
Green, in a statement, called his bill The Stopping Communist Regimes from Engaging in Edits Now Act (SCREEN Act).
“The bill also requires film companies receiving production assistance from the Department of State or the Department of Defense to report previous films that have been substantially edited by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for Chinese domestic consumption,” according to Green’s statement.
“It also ensures Hollywood studios provide written agreements pledging they will not edit their own films at the request of censorship from the Chinese Communist Party.”
Green went on say “it’s absurd to think that Hollywood allows the Chinese Communist Party to shape its content.”
Last year, Newt Gingrich, referring to the American business community’s new interests in China, said “patriotism should come before capitalism.”
“Indeed, corporate America needs to recognize that China is a totalitarian dictatorship, and therefore it’s impossible to have a purely business relationship with China. In the Chinese model, politics dominates and ultimately controls business. In other words, there’s no such thing as a private Chinese company, because at the end of the day, the Communist Party can do as it pleases with every ‘private’ entity.” Gingrich wrote.
“This makes it easier for China to use economic pressure to reinforce its political pressure, especially in Hollywood. In 2019, for example, the Paramount Pictures trailer of Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel to the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, originally showed Tom Cruise putting on a jacket with two patches of the Japanese and Taiwanese flags. After outcry from Beijing, the trailer replaced the patches with two ambiguous symbols.
“China’s leaders clearly didn’t want anything promoting Taiwanese sovereignty or their Japanese rivals, so they complained. And Hollywood, fearing it may lose access to hundreds of millions of dollars in the Chinese market, obeyed China’s demands.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star and The Georgia Star News. Follow Chris on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, and GETTR. Email tips to [email protected].
