On August 5, PEN America, a non-profit organization that protects free expression in the U.S. and the world, published a report disclosing that Hollywood, tempted by the huge Chinese market, has been censoring itself to please Beijing. This has become the business model in Hollywood. Experts believe that this problem reaches far beyond Hollywood. This 94 page-long report pointed out that Hollywood, being the most influential artistic and cultural medium in the world, has more than billions of audiences watching its films. But in the past decade, the U.S. film industry has been impacted by CCP’s censorship. Many major Hollywood production companies and producers are increasingly self-censoring their casts, scripts, and movie sets. They even directly invite CCP censors to participate in the movie sets so that they can be advised on how to avoid being censored.
The report also mentioned the strategy of “Borrowing a boat to go out on the ocean” used by the CCP to globalize its propaganda in order to influence foreign audiences. The CCP used this strategy to reach people who can’t be reached by the news. The report said that the CCP censors can decide whether a film is permitted to be screened and promoted, and when they can release the film within China. This creates a huge uncertainty and even great costs for the studios.
