The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a bill on July 26 that would forbid the State Department from helping studios that censor films on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The committee passed the Stopping Communist Regimes from Engaging in Edits Now (SCREEN) Act, 26-23. The measure, introduced by Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), now goes to the House floor for a full vote.
The SCREEN Act would allow the Secretary of State to allow technical assistance by the State Department to a U.S company producing a film as long as the company provides the Secretary a list of films made by the company over the past decade that have been submitted to the CCP for review in order to show to audiences in China. Assistance would not be allowed to be given by the State Department to entities that have worked with the CCP on films.
“The Chinese Communist Party has no place dictating the content of American films. American filmmakers should feel free to be as patriotic as they like without fear of Xi Jinping asking them to remove images of American flags or the Statue of Liberty,” Mr. Green said.
Sony declined a CCP request last year to remove a scene with the Statue of Liberty in the movie “Spiderman: Now Way Home.”
“Top Gun: Maverick” censored a Taiwanese flag that was on the jacket of one of the characters, as China has claimed that Taiwan is theirs. The censorship was reversed.
“Allowing Beijing to take a red pen to our movie scripts is downright un-American and sets a dangerous precedent,” Mr. Green continued. “Our films are an expression of American culture and that should not be influenced by a dictator 7,000 miles from our shores.
“My SCREEN Act shows that the United States will not be pushed around, not on the international stage or on the Oscar stage,” he said.
He told The Epoch Times the development is a “significant victory for American films and for patriotism–-not to mention a kick in the teeth to the CCP.”
The legislation would require the Secretary of State to submit within 180 days following the enactment of the bill, and annually thereafter, a report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee about entities supported by the State Department that submitted films to the CCP for review “during the shorter of the preceding 10-year period or the period beginning on the date of the enactment” of the measure. The Secretary would be required to give descriptions of those films.
