Quick reminder at the top —China is not our friend. Chinese leaders consistently speak about overtaking America as the world’s number one super power, and peddle disinformation to improve their standing while doing and saying everything they can to sabotage America.
Anti-Americanism is part of the CCP platform —and it manifests in ways you may not expect. Take, for example, some of Hollywood’s latest blockbuster movies: Spider-Man: No Way Home and Top Gun: Maverick.
According to the New York Post, China insisted that images of the Statue of Liberty be removed or minimized from the final fight scene in last year’s Spider-man: No Way Home.
“Chinese regulators had asked if [Sony] could ‘delete the Statue of Liberty from the ending of the film,’” the Post reports. “Sony unsurprisingly declined the demand given the prominence of Lady Liberty in the climax in which the three spidermen swing around the iconic symbol of freedom while battling supervillains.”
But China kept pushing…
“Undaunted, China then inquired if the monument could be ‘minimized’…Specifically, they’d wondered ‘if Sony could cut a few of the more patriotic shots of [Tom] Holland standing atop the crown, or dull the lighting so that Lady Liberty’s visage wasn’t so front-and-center.’”
Sony said “no,” leaving $170 million-$340 million on the table. And good for them.
Now, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, we know that Chinese tech company Tencent backed out of financing the new Top Gun movie for similar censorship reasons.
“Tencent executives backed out of the $170 million Paramount Pictures production after they grew concerned that Communist Party officials in Beijing would be angry about the company’s affiliation with a movie celebrating the American military, according to people familiar with the matter,” WSJ reported.
“In late 2019, when Tencent quietly backed away from the film, companies operating in China were under pressure to pledge loyalty to the Communist Party as part of President Xi Jinping’s tightening grip on his country’s businesses,” WSJ continues.
But is China’s anti-America approach helping or hurting its goal of becoming the world’s largest economy? According to Reuters, it hurts.
“[Chinese] Officials are willing to risk a recession to eliminate Covid-19 within the borders to show up American epidemiological incompetence. Endorsing Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will hurt local companies, but state media justify the sacrifice by arguing Moscow’s support is necessary to prevent Washington from ‘splitting China into puzzle pieces.’”
This obsession is unhealthy and it’s hobbling China’s economy.
