Once Upon A Time… in ChinaHow an American film distributor became a part of the CCP's Hollywood empireCharles Fain Lehman and Yuichiro Kakutani - July 6, 2020 4:59 AM
Over the past decade, more and more American moviegoers have witnessed something startling: Much of what they watch is now altered to serve the interests of the Chinese Communist Party.
From the omission of Taiwan's flag from a jacket in Top Gun: Maverick to China's digital replacement with North Korea in Red Dawn, the country's political sway in movies has grown increasingly apparent. Hollywood studios now bend over backwards to appease the government gatekeeping the world's fastest-growing media market. The effects of that influence operation are obvious, but the mechanics that drive it are obscured in a vast web of corporate connections.
Within that web, however, lies one story: that of a major independent digital distributor, Cinedigm, known originally for overhauling cinemas and now in the business of distributing television and movies to storefronts and digital platforms like Netflix and iTunes. ...
These connections—ties to a CCP apparatchik and a military-run corporation, funding from a government-controlled bank—are not in themselves criminal. Hollywood studios enjoy myriad tax breaks, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is known for his deep Hollywood ties.
But the Chinese government clearly sees its influence over American media as a means of exercising what Fenton called "soft power." Shaping an American company through a private intermediary is straight out of the Communist Party's playbook, according to China expert Zack Cooper of the American Enterprise Institute. ...
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