U.S. passes new bill to curb Beijing-appeasing edits in Hollywood films

In a move to discourage Hollywood from self-censoring films to appease the Chinese government, Washington policymakers have updated a defense bill to restrict cooperation between the U.S. government and any American film studios that edit or alter their movies for audiences in China.

A little-publicized provision to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was approved in a bipartisan vote of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in December. Designed to regulate and monitor the annual budget and expenditures of the U.S. Department of Defense, the 4,408-page bill contains a wide range of policies concerning areas such as cybersecurity and medical research.

Under the category of entertainment, there is a new provision that targets Hollywood film studio efforts to accommodate China’s censors. Specifically, it prohibits the Pentagon from spending defense funds to cooperate with any film project that seeks “pre-approval of the content” from the Chinese government, or “modifies or deletes in any way the content of the project as a result of any direction from any entity of China’s government or its Communist party.”

Hollywood ♥︎ Pentagon

It is not uncommon for the Pentagon to provide assistance on film and TV projects, typically in the form of military equipment and technical consultancy. A recent example is the 2022 Hollywood blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, which borrowed an array of F-18 fighter jets and other military gear from the U.S. Defense Department’s Entertainment Media Office, which allowed the use of the assets in exchange for editorial control of the film’s script. (It’s worth noting that American reports on this exchange do not typically characterize it as “censorship.”)

The new provision is a watered-down version of a legislation introduced by Republican Senator Ted Cruz in 2020. Titled the “Stopping Censorship, Restoring Integrity, Protecting Talkies Act” (SCRIPT Act), the original bill proposed by Cruz sought to block any forms of cooperation between the Pentagon and Hollywood studios if they try to apply self-censorship to appease Beijing.

Cruz’s proposed legislation didn’t advance far, but the concept of it eventually made its way into the defense bill, despite the Motion Picture Association lobbying against it. In a statement to Deadline, Cruz said he expects the Biden administration to ensure “faithful” implementation of the NDAA’s China-Hollywood provision.

“The language is designed to counter China’s campaign to control what Americans hear, see and ultimately think,” the self-described “China hawk” wrote to the publication. “Under this provision, Hollywood studios that want to work with the government — things like using military locations or resources for filming — will have to keep the CCP off of the set and out of the editing room.”

In 2019, a trailer for Top Gun: Maverick sparked controversy as keen-eyed fans noticed that a patch showing the Taiwanese flag was missing from Tom Cruise’s iconic bomber jacket, which he wore in the original movie. That omission angered critics, prompting speculation that Paramount made the change to appease the film’s Chinese backer, Tencent, and avoid the risk of alienating Chinese authorities.

Top Gun: Maverick later brought back the flag in its worldwide release, after Tencent reportedly left the project. As a result, the film didn’t get to be shown in China, but it was celebrated elsewhere for not pandering to the Chinese market.

“More than anything the provision is designed to send a message and to prevent things like the U.S. military cooperating on Top Gun: Maverick only for initial promotional images to excise the Taiwan flag,” Aynne Kokas, the C.K. Yen Chair at the Miller Center and the author of Hollywood Made in China and Trafficking Data: How China Is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty, told The China Project.

The honeymoon was over anyway

She added that the new bill would have a significant impact on co-production projects because they “have Chinese government approval in development and throughout production.” But the model “has already fallen out of favor because it is difficult to implement,” she said.

Even The Great Wall, which was released in 2016 and is the largest U.S.-China co-production ever, bombed spectacularly in the box office despite its star-studded cast (including Matt Damon) and the global reputation of its director, Zhāng Yìmóu 张艺谋. Since then, a number of large Hollywood-China deals collapsed due to a confluence of political and regulatory reasons, wrote Will Seaton for The China Project.

Stanley Rosen, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California, described the provision as “more of a warning shot across the bow of the Hollywood studios, suggesting that they need to be on their best behavior when it comes to China, or Congress will go much further.”

“It currently does not hold much practical significance,” he told The China Project. “But it’s a first step and a warning.”

Hollywood — America’s premier cultural exporter — has a long tradition of abiding by Beijing’s sensitivities to gain access to and reap profits from the lucrative Chinese market. Beyond editing out scenes to comply with China’s restrictions on graphic nudity, violence, and depictions of same-sex relationships, 2022 saw a new phenomenon of Hollywood movies creating alternate endings to make the content more palatable to the Chinese government. For example, when Universal Pictures’ Minions: The Rise of Gru entered Chinese theaters last year, the animation received a China-exclusive addendum that completely changed the movie’s original ending, turning it into a morality tale where no villains are left unpunished.

However, in recent years, such practices of self-censorship have come under heightened scrutiny as hawkishness toward China has intensified in Washington. Last month, the House, in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, established a select tough-on-China committee to assess the military, economic, and technological threats posed by the country. Wisconsin congressman Mike Gallagher, the chair of the special panel, later said that the entertainment industry would be the subject of hearings, adding that he would like Walt Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, to testify about business dealings with China.

“With the Republicans in control of the House, they would like nothing better than to go after liberal Hollywood and link them to the ‘enemy,’ China,” Rosen said.