Part 7: How China Undermines Democracy

A proud division of the People’s Republic of China …

In 2012, fans of the classic movie Red Dawn were eagerly awaiting release of a remake. The 1984 original had a group of teens heroically fighting a communist occupation after Soviet and Cuban troops invaded part of America.

But the sequel was suddenly and inexplicably delayed. We soon learned it was because MGM spent US $1 million digitally erasing evidence of the intended invader: China’s People’s Liberation Army. Instead, frame-by-frame, North Koreans were substituted. So, rather than Communist China successfully invading a chunk of America, which is at least somewhat plausible, Hollywood changed it to North Korea, which is absurd.

That’s because China demanded the change, or the movie wouldn’t be released in China. And Hollywood, battered by digital piracy, the death of DVDs and its own incompetence — needed the money.

Take a look at the chart. Adjusted for inflation, Hollywood box office has declined by 12 percent since 2002. Some of that is the effect of digitalization. Most of it is, woke Hollywood hates half of Americans, and puts out movies they won’t see. The reason the leftists in Hollywood thought they could get away with that is international box office, especially from China was rising significantly. In other words, the leftists who run American film studios decided they would rather cater to the values of Communist China than Middle America.

That’s no surprise when you look at who ran Hollywood in that period:

Robert Iger, Disney: Turned family-friendly Disney into a cultural sewer while being one of Barack Obama’s biggest donors. Wanted to run for President in 2020, until it became clear that in today’s woke Democratic Party anyone in business was anathema, and the $60 million in bonuses he received would be disqualifying.

David Geffen, DreamWorks: A prominent homosexual, who campaigned tirelessly to normalize homosexuality on screen. He was a huge donor to the Clintons, until he turned on them in 2007, and threw his support behind Obama because he felt the Clintons had betrayed him on gay issues.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks: Geffen’s partner gave Obama US $2.6 million

Harvey Weinstein, Miramax, Weinstein Company: Once the Democrat’s favorite Hollywood studio head, though he’s now better known as a serial rapist of the actresses who auditioned for his company. Weinstein held fundraisers for every major Democrat in politics before his legal troubles; he raised tens of millions of dollars for Dems and other liberal causes, which he probably thought made him immune from rape laws.

Brian Roberts, NBC/Universal: one of Barack Obama’s biggest backers, who directed his executives to raise millions for Obama. In the 2012 election cycle alone, Comcast employees donated more than $465,000 to the Democratic National Committee, more than $300,000 to the president’s reelection campaign, and $178,050 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. One of his senior executives held a huge fundraiser at his house in Philadelphia, where he thanked Obama for, “being such a good friend.”

Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner: HBO is one of the most woke platforms in Hollywood, producing multiple moves like “Too Big To Fail” and “Game Change” which trash Republicans and never Democrats. In fact, “Game Change” is based on a book that is 50 percent about the intense 2008 Hillary-Obama rivalry which included the Clintons questioning whether Obama was even born in America, and thus eligible to run for President. It was left out of the movie.

Sumner Redstone, Paramount: self-described "liberal Democrat," and a prolific donor to Democratic campaigns. Of Paramount’s 13 board members, eight contribute primarily to Democratic candidates and party committees. Two other members of the board, Joseph Califano and William Cohen, held cabinet posts under Democrat presidents.

Note that Disney owns ABC, Paramount owns CBS, Comcast owns NBC and Time Warner owned CNN, until it spun it off a few years ago. In other words, all of America’s TV media is owned by these staunch liberal Democrats who uniformly oppose middle American voters and values. We’ll consider that in our next chapter.

What Chinese Communist Party values did Hollywood have to submit to have to do to get into China?

“We have a huge market, and we want to share it with you,” said Zhang Xun, then the president of the state-owned China Film Co-Production Corporation, speaking to a room full of Hollywood executives. “We want films that are heavily invested in Chinese culture, not one or two shots. We want to see positive Chinese images.”

Gravity: China’s non-existent space station

So, makers of “The Martian,” gave the China National Space Administration a prominent role in the film. Leading up to “Iron Man 3’s” China release, filmmakers inserted a scene of doctors discussing surgery on the superhero, all of whom were played by major Chinese movie stars. “Mission Impossible: III" — partially shot in Shanghai — retroactively excluded a scene of the city featuring underwear hanging from a clothesline because Beijing claimed it portrayed China as “a developing country.” 

In the disaster movie, "2012," humanity is saved because the Chinese government had the foresight to build life-saving arcs. In "Gravity," Sandra Bullock survives by getting herself to the Chinese space station — a Chinese space station that doesn’t exist.

But it gets worse. Much worse. Just like the people in Hollywood.

China has the three Ts: Tiananmen, Tibet, and Taiwan. We already showed here how the “scholars” who run Western universities have changed how these topics are taught on campuses for Beijing’s cash.

In 1989, China infamously crushed a student-led democracy protest in Tienanmen Square, killing 10 thousand peaceful demonstrators. Wonder why there hasn’t been a movie made about these ill-fated, heroic demonstrators who tried to take on the dictators in the Chinese Communist Party? It’s a pretty fantastic story. Now you know why Hollywood’s corrupt and incompetent toadies won’t touch it, while they yap endlessly about Donald Trump.

China does not want any mention Taiwan. Even though it technically is still a part of China, Taiwan is a democracy and capitalist country, which China is not. The upcoming “Top Gun: Maverick” was so concerned with offending its Chinese masters, Tom Cruise’s iconic flight jacket was stripped of its Japanese and Taiwanese flags.

Beijing also doesn’t want any discussion of Tibet, which it invaded in the 1950s, and where it suppresses the language, customs and religion. Ever wonder what happened to actor Richard Gere? He was the bankable star of blockbusters like “Chicago,” “Officer and a Gentleman,” and “Pretty Woman.”

Gere: Can’t say he didn’t give his all for the cause

Gere is a Buddhist and staunch supporter of the Dalai Lama, the religious leader of Tibetans. He helped promote the Dalai Lama, and Tibetan independence. So, any movie that Richard Gere makes will not be shown in China. That’s why Richard Gere has not been the leading man in any Hollywood blockbuster for about 20 years.

Specifically, how does Beijing get Hollywood’s lap dogs to lick its boots?

China currently allows only 34 non-Chinese movies into the mainland, all of them heavily edited by a state agency called the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television. SAPPRFT’s mission is to portray Chinese culture favorably — and in line with the Communist Party’s agenda.



If Hollywood wants access to China’s market, China forces Hollywood to have a certain number of Chinese actors, filming locations in China, as well as depicting the Chinese government as heroic and noble — which is no different than depicting the Nazis as heroic and noble.

Hollywood can circumvent the quota system by co-producing the film with a Chinese firm, which makes it a domestic film for quota purposes. So, under Barrack Obama, China was also allowed to flood into Hollywood.

The biggest player is Dalian Wanda, China’s largest commercial property company and movie theater operator. In 2012, Dalian Wanda bought AMC Entertainment — the second largest movie theater chain in the U.S. for about US $2.6 billion. Then in March of this year, AMC reached a $737 million purchase agreement for Carmike Cinemas, which would form the largest movie theater chain in the country with 8,380 screens in more than 600 theater locations (the deal is expected to close late this year). So, remember: every time you stay away from a theater you’re not putting money in the pocket of Hollywood or China.

Dalian Wanda also agreed in January to purchase Legendary Entertainment — the film production company behind Batman’s “The Dark Knight” trilogy — for about US $3.5 billion and wants to buy Lionsgate, producer of The Hunger Games. 


Dalian Wanda isn’t just a private company with a lot of money. The firm’s founder and chairman, Wang Jianlin, is a former member of the People’s Liberation Army, a Communist Party deputy and boasts strong connections to Party elites. His firm has received at least $1.1 billion in Chinese government subsidies. Dalian Wanda also sold company stakes to various family members of elected officials, including the elder sister of President Xi Jinping and relatives of two members of the Politburo — China’s principal policymaking committee. A business partner of former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s daughter also supplied the firm with seed money.

The goal is to expand China’s “soft power” by acquiring cultural assets from foreign entities. China now spends about $10 billion annually on “external propaganda” alone. 

And Wang has emerged as Xi’s foot soldier. When he acquired Legendary, Wang called it “China’s largest cross-border cultural acquisition to date.” 



The control of both production and distribution channels allows him to censor movies in their development stage and after release. Wang will prevent his movie theaters from playing films unapproved by the Communist Party. Basically China now decides what can get made.

Encouraged by Beijing, other Chinese corporate giants Tencent, Alibaba, Group and Baidu Inc. are also buying into Hollywood.

Alibaba Pictures Group bought a stake in Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners last month after taking stakes in several Paramount Pictures titles, including “Star Trek Beyond.”

Tencent Pictures, the Chinese internet giant's upstart filmmaking unit, has set aside more than US $150 million, to finance Hollywood and Chinese film projects in 2017. Tencent spent the same amount on film financing in 2016. The company was a co-financier of Legendary Entertainment's Chinese box-office hit “Warcraft” (which grossed $220.8 million in the country), and the upcoming “Kong: Skull Island.” By co-financing, producers spread the risk. In September, Tencent Pictures announced an ambitious 21-film slate.

Tang Media Partners, created by businessman Donald Tang and also backed by Tencent, last week announced the purchase of IM Global, a Hollywood film financier and sales agency, in a deal that also involved Li Ruigang’s China Media Capital and the Huayi Brothers media group.

Li, is also created Flagship Entertainment with Warner Brothers to co-produce films and recently took a stake in Imagine Entertainment, a production company led by Ron Howard and Brian Glazer that made the film “In the Heart of the Sea.”

STX Entertainment, a new studio, received investment from Hony Capital, a Chinese private equity firm, while Studio 8, a production venture started by former Warner Brothers executive Jeff Robinov, is backed by Fosun International, the Chinese conglomerate.

None of this is news in Washington. U.S. Attorney General William Barr last month berated Hollywood for being so willing to suck-up to China, “I suspect Walt Disney would be disheartened to see how the company he founded deals with the foreign dictatorships of our day.”

But as we showed here, for 30 years American politicians have lined their pockets while turning a blind eye to the damage China has caused. None more so than Joe Biden — the Democrat nominee for President whose family has done US $5 billion in deals with China.

Hollywooders are the worst people on Earth. The dumbest people on earth are the so-called journalists who work for them, who are actually too stupidity to know they carry China’s water. They’re our final chapter.