China To Restrict US Film Releases (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0176994605
- News link: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/04/10/1551222/china-to-restrict-us-film-releases
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/apr/10/china-to-restrict-us-film-releases-after-trumps-tariff-hike
> "The wrong action of the US government to abuse tariffs on China will inevitably further reduce the domestic audience's favourability towards American films," the China Film Administration said in a statement on Thursday. "We will follow the market rules, respect the audience's choice, and moderately reduce the number of American films imported."
>
> The move mirrors the potential countermeasure suggested by two influential Chinese bloggers earlier in the week, warning that "China has plenty of tools for retaliation." Both Liu Hong, a senior editor at Xinhuanet, the website of the state-run Xinhua news agency, as well as Ren Yi, the grandson of former Guangdong party chief Ren Zhongyi, posted an identical proposal involving a heavy reduction on the import of US movies and further investigation of the intellectual property benefits of American companies operating in China. China is the world's second largest film market after the US.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/apr/10/china-to-restrict-us-film-releases-after-trumps-tariff-hike
That'll show Orange Man! (Score:4, Funny)
My understanding is that most of Hollywood tends towards the Democratic Party. I can imagine the Orange One voicing his outrage over this, and raising the tariffs again.
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Ambassador Gib Melson will be disappointed.
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What are you 12?
Re:That'll show Orange Man! (Score:5, Informative)
Maybe the next import restrictions will be soybeans, one of the [1]top USA exports to China [usafacts.org], which will piss off Trump's rural voters.
[1] https://usafacts.org/articles/what-are-the-top-us-exports-to-china/
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Oh, they're already going to lose their farms on the existing tariff rates.
Nobody in China is going to want to buy soybeans that are twice as expensive as soybeans from literally anywhere else.
The leopards who eat faces are getting FAT on the supply of faces to eat.
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We've been there before with trump. Farmers will be bailed out like last time. What I've not seen mentioned much is China could go "nuclear" on us. China could bail out their suppliers hurt by tariffs by selling their massive T-Bill supply. We of course will be using debt to pay the farmers off, and ironically without China soaking up some of the debt, I guess the Fed will be doing another round of QE.
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So we grow 80% of the worlds soybeans (give or take)? What happens when we stop selling them to China? Grow something else I guess? The same areas that grow soybeans are just fine for corn and other crops so to me this seems like the kind of thing that within a season or two means nothing to either side. American farmers can grow other crops. China can get soybeans from other places right?
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> What happens when we stop selling them to China?
Same thing as the last time: Federal cash payouts to farmers.
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> So we grow 80% of the worlds soybeans (give or take)?
No, the US soybean production in 2022 was 116 million tonnes. That's less than Brazil's 120 million tonnes. You aren't even the largest soybean grower in the world. That means that even if there were only two soybean growing countries, you would necessarily be growing less than 50% due to being in second place.
> What happens when we stop selling them to China? Grow something else I guess? The same areas that grow soybeans are just fine for corn and other
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With tariffs on US soy beans, China can afford to pay Brazil and other countries a bit more, so they will increase soy bean production and move their own population to other products to increase the amount available for sale. So there will be a very substantial loss to the USA. And it won't come back. And anything else they might change their production to will be hit by tariffs just the same.
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> So we grow 80% of the worlds soybeans (give or take)?
Can you clarify your data? According to Wikipedia citing the FAO, world's largest soybean producer was Brazil with 35% of world's production, with USA a close second at 33%. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] In any case, fabricating a crash of world's basic food production is a really bad idea.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_soybean_production
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28%
[1]https://farmdocdaily.illinois.... [illinois.edu]
[1] https://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2024/02/the-united-states-brazil-and-china-soybean-triangle-a-20-year-analysis.html
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> My understanding is that most of Hollywood tends towards the Democratic Party.
Hollywood is a business that makes a lot more money when demographics are taken into consideration. Kids gravitate to toys that look like them, for example. I mean, it's escapist entertainment, right? That sort of business is fundamentally incompatible with efforts to pick on groups of people. Hollywood is less attracted to the Democrats and more repulsed by the Republicans.
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Actually... just this last Christmas I took my daughter to get a photo with Black Santa at her request. We had to get a reservation.
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There's a Little Mermaid lesson, too. So what?
Re: That'll show Orange Man! (Score:2)
I'm holding out for the Tron lesson, because it'll be the coolest.
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Actually, Trump was asked about this today and made a comment about the Hollywood movie restrictions:
[1]https://x.com/RapidResponse47/... [x.com]
[1] https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1910388089610207360
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I was thinking the same thing. All the people who spent last eight years screaming about how orange man is worse than Hitler at their posh parties now have to beg teetotaller Don to please think of their drug supplies?
Being a fly on the wall for those meetings would be better than any Hollywood movie.
If it's good for the goose... (Score:5, Funny)
If protectionism is good for America, it's good for China.
Glad that Trump is trying to Make China Great Again.
No!! Not the heckin Marvel capeslop! (Score:4, Funny)
How will China ever recover?
Good News? (Score:3)
Taken to its logical conclusion, maybe Hollywood can stop cowtowing to the commies with plots and incidents that "offend" those folks, but tend to please patriotic Americans. So maybe it will not be an issue whether there's an American flag on the sleeve of on an American movie featuring American astronauts.
Re:Good News? (Score:5, Insightful)
> Taken to its logical conclusion, maybe Hollywood can stop cowtowing to the commies with plots and incidents that "offend" those folks, but tend to please patriotic Americans. So maybe it will not be an issue whether there's an American flag on the sleeve of on an American movie featuring American astronauts.
China is probably doing this precisely because Hollywood desperately craves that Chinese money. And there's enough big money names in Hollywood to actually register as a blip on Donald's egodar and maybe, just maybe, make a dent in his pathetic penis size contest with Xi. Neither one of them is coming off looking good from this little back and forth tantrum thing, and appealing to the Hollywood machine probably seems like a good way to at least throw a temporary wrench into Trump's plans.
Granted, China may have miscalculated on this one. Trump is not a fan of the Hollywood machine. Though he is a fan of the money it generates. Guess we'll see which way this one swings once it plays out.
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I think the point is to cause as much pain in as many places as possible. If Hollywood won't make Trump jump, then a whole lot of Republican-voting soy bean farmers will certainly make noises that Congressional Republicans can hear.
And that's before we even talk about China's power to severely fuck over US bond markets. As we've already seen, the one thing that does appear to make this Administration recoil is fuckery in bond markets.
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I've actually seen a couple of interviews with soybean farmers. They are surprisingly very supportive of trump. Almost like a child supporting a father. They do always mention getting bailed out though. And of course decry they don't like to be bailed out, and yet they take the money with no fuss.
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Fingers crossed.
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Jesus Christ. When are you living, 1960? Commies? What fucking Commies? You'll never see a more hypercapitalist place than Hollywood.
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They usually do a different edit for China, and some other parts of the world. Another example is Japan, where rules on showing drug use sometimes require a bit of editing.
I seem to recall many years ago that one of the Star Wars prequels was edited for the UK to remove a head-butt, which for some reason the BBFC took issue with in a PG movie (but not the lightsabres hacking off limbs).
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> one of the Star Wars prequels was edited for the UK to remove a head-butt
Down with this sort of thing!
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> I seem to recall many years ago that one of the Star Wars prequels was edited for the UK to remove a head-butt, which for some reason the BBFC took issue with in a PG movie (but not the lightsabres hacking off limbs).
It does make a little bit of sense. Idiot kids can reproduce head butting, but they can't reproduce cutting off limbs with light sabres.
Good (Score:3)
Now maybe Hollywood won't feel compelled to put North Koreans in their films about Chinese invaders.
[1]https://www.huffpost.com/entry... [huffpost.com]
[1] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/red-dawn-changes-villains_n_836439
Summary already out of date: 145% not 125% (Score:3)
The shitshow continues...
Craptacular (Score:2)
I think the world would be better off if we don't allow the formulated crap that's being released by "Hollywood." In this case, I agree with China.
good now no more bowing to china with edits! TOP G (Score:2)
good now no more bowing to china with edits! TOP GUN 3 with Taiwan
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My thoughts exactly.
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Have you ever considered how much california imports from other US states?
Go ahead cripple the california economy, you're just cutting off your nose to spite your face. If Calfornia's economy is battered, it will be importing less from Idaho and Kentucky.
There is a reason everyone except Trump knows that there are no winners in a trade war.
Integer overflow (Score:3)
The Chinese are simply waiting for Trump to increase tariffs further, beyond MAX_INT (2147483647). Once there is an integer overflow, it will be Trump who has to pay the Chinese due to the negative tariff.
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The way the Trump Administration works, all the calculations are being done on an Altair 8800 with 4k of RAM.
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Wait, Trump will reach an integer overflow before China! So with some precise timing, China can make the American government pay almost infinite amounts of tariffs to China, while US customers will run to the harbors and airplanes to drag imported goods away and get money paid for it.
Sincerely good news (Score:2)
This is great news for movie lovers. Hollywood has been pandering towards the mainland Chinese audience for well over a decade now. The effects have been mostly negligible, but often bad, and never good. Released from appeal to the highly conservative mainland Chinese audience, maybe movies will get a little better now. Hard to have much hope for Hollywood these days, but this new development certainly won't hurt!
Hollywood will save a lot of money... (Score:1)
On the plus side, Hollywood won't have to edit their posters to reduce the size of the only black man in the film to make sure Chinese people don't see it! That'll save some money for them!
Obligatory (Score:2)
And nothing of value will be lost....
more of the same. (Score:2)
So they're just going to further limit what they already limited? Oh, wait, you didn't know they ALREADY had basic limitations on US film imports?
As SILLY as most American "films" (Score:3)
China should be tougher. Can't they just seize companies with almost no due process like Trump is working towards? It'll be like pointing out President Tiny's ..."small hands." Furthermore, they can just take away Tesla's factories... or would that cause the real President to start a war?
They can go more targeted. Why not use TicToc to spew propaganda? I bet the bottom 30% would believe anything was said to them.
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The very instant TikTok becomes a propaganda tool against Trump, is the instant he revokes his suspension of the TikTok ban. And all his followers will lap up the instant about face gaslighting to justify the clearly corrupt behavior.
Good (Score:2)
Maybe Hollywood will stop inserting CCP propaganda like that heard toward the end of the movie Game Night. As a former Marine that really pissed me off.
cultural effects? (Score:2)
Funny, all the comments so far are about $$$ and no mention of the cultural halo.... "soft power". There was a time when American "culture" was desirable in China. I get the impression that may not be a big factor anymore with the rise of Chinese influence in the world.
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Right. Like the proposition that admitting China to the WTO would cause them to democratize and dump the commies after they became prosperous. How’s that working out?
Winning (Score:2)
So, Hollywood et. al no longer has any reason to continue worrying about the CCP and its preferred narratives. Great.
Love the double-speak (Score:2)
They said they are restricting the number of films that will be allowed into the country because the Chinese people will be angry and wont want to watch them. So this is really just listening to the market! Uh huh
Sounds good to me. (Score:2)
Hollywood has been among the most pro-Chinese industries around, even willingly pushing Chinese propaganda sometimes (see John Cena's gag-inducing bent-knee apology to China over simply mentioning Taiwan). So I really don't see anything bad coming from this. Worst case, some Hollywood elites living in a bubble lose some money? We get movies actually targeting American audiences again?
Chinese will still watch American films (Score:2)
The Chinese will still watch American films. The only difference is that instead of feeling a bit good about piracy, they'll feel really good about piracy.
Who will watch Snow White now? (Score:2)
Who will watch Snow White now?
American films? (Score:2)
Who needs this dumb and tired crapfest, rehashed and remade a million times with less and less creativity?
Re:USA films...tired crapfest, rehashed (Score:5, Funny)
But now they have AI to make a whole new level of insipidness.
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Even so....perhaps this is a GOOD thing!!
Maybe US movie makers will quit catering to the whims of the CCP....and making changes ONLY to please them.
I mean, in the remake of Red Dawn, didn't they have to change the invading enemy from Chinese to something else?
Didn't they try to change some emblems on one of the jackets for Top Gun ....I don't remember the exact thing, but did read something about it....
Anyway...US film makers have been altering story lines so as NOT to insult the CCP and well, that suck
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The Top Gun change was to a leather jacket worn, IIRC, by Tom Cruz. I think it depicted the Flying Tigers squadron. I believe it was deemed possibly offensive by someone, I think they were based in Taiwan or something.
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Flying Tigers were Americans operating (mostly) in China against Japan. Someone was "offended" because the Flying Tigers either
A) they weren't pro-Communist.
B) that China needed help.
Re:American films? (Score:5, Insightful)
Needs? No one. Wants on the other hand is a more interesting question given how much of Hollywood's mega companies depend on China to boost their global box-office intake.
It's easy to dismiss this, but this distribution channel directly contributes to American employment in the motion picture sector.
The employment doesn't matter (Score:2, Insightful)
It's mostly in blue states so the Republicans will ignore it. The real problem for the Republicans is this will cost billions and might cause Hollywood to step up and counteract some of the musk money.
I don't think folks realize just how much Elon Musk has changed US politics. He has threatened to spend any amount of money necessary to remove Republican politicians from office using our primary election system and because a relatively small amount of money is spent on primary elections that threat is ex
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Well you got one thing right ... "I don't think" is absolutely dead on.
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Musk: I'm going to directly bribe Wisconsin voters!
You: I have to defend Elon, so I will pretend he's doing something else.
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Yea it worked out so well for him right?
A progressive state elected an extremely progressive supreme court judge that's exactly what he wanted right?
How are you going to spin that around to make sense in la-la land?
So Musk is an imbecile (Score:1)
Who blundered into an insane amount of wealth thanks to a combination of his daddy's connections, the .com bubble and an insane amount of government subsidies.
I will give him credit for one and only one thing, in all his financial scams he's made it a point to make sure that the super super rich never get in trouble. He always screws over low level investors and make sure that somehow that we aren't going to question the rich assholes always know when the stock price is about to go down but guys like yo
Thou shalt not speak ill (Score:2)
If our Lord and Savior Elon. Praise be his name and praise be the name of the orange one attached to his buttocks. May forever he controlled the Republican party by threatening them with primary elections and the limitless cash from stock scams.
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Me: Musk directly bribed Wisonsin voters.
You: Yeah, but it didn't work, so therefore ???
TBH, I've got nothing here. What exactly is the point you are trying to make?
A bribe does not have to successful to still be a bribe.
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> Yea it worked out so well for him right?
> A progressive state elected an extremely progressive supreme court judge that's exactly what he wanted right? How are you going to spin that around to make sense in la-la land?
At the same time they also voted overwhelmingly for Voter ID laws.
So, not a total loss and not completely left wing it seems.
Well you know not everybody can be as big brained (Score:2)
As Donald Trump who presided over the single largest increase in stock market value since 2008.
Now whatever you do don't ask how or why he accomplished that. Just remember he did it while he was winning a golf tournament.
Also don't ask how or why or where he won a golf tournament.
Re: American films? (Score:2)
Less creativity and more diversity and inclusion bullshit
Re:American films? (Score:4, Funny)
Hollywood getting screwed is a feature not a bug.
We’re reaping the benefits of tariffs already!
Re: American films? (Score:2)
It's certainly going to reduce trade, which seems to be the goal. Not sure why you want GDP to fall, though.
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> Not sure why you want GDP to fall, though.
Because as soon as the word "Hollywood" was encountered, it triggered the psychological conditioning they've been receiving for years through their media of choice - that "Hollywood" is filled with woke communist blah blah blah, and it gives them the emotional reinforcement they want of political enemies getting punished; a.k.a. "owning the libs."
It's an entirely emotional reaction rather than a rational one. You're looking for rationality where it no longer exists due to constant exposure to propaganda.