“Profits above all else” was the fact that rang true on Tuesday’s edition of The Lead on CNN as anchor Jake Tapper and Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel called out liberal Hollywood for capitulating to the censors in communist China to get their blood money.
This was the latest installment in Tapper’s series “Behind China’s Wall” where, as he put it, “we go behind the fanfare and the glamor of the current Olympic games” and call out China’s “crackdowns on freedoms and crimes humanity and genocide.” He said all this as an image of the Chinese flag loomed over the Hollywood sign was displayed over his shoulder (pictured above).
Noting that “the Chinese government in effect censors much of what comes out of the Hollywood film industry,” Tapper explained: “They don't do this, of course, through direct control. They do it through their enormous economic leverage and the fear from studios on missing out on a market of 1.4 billion people in China.”
Schwartzel’s newly released book, Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy, examined this topic in detail and gave him expert insight into how China puts its thumb on U.S. content creation, including the sequel of an American classic, Top Gun:
Yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, in 1986, not only was Hollywood not concerned about the Chinese market, but, I mean, do we have an example of more rah-rah cinema than Top Gun? I mean, enlistments shot up after that movie came out. And when this more recent version was advertised a couple of years ago, people noticed as you said, that the Taiwanese and the Japanese flag had been removed from Maverick’s jacket.
Looking at the reasons why Hollywood would subject themselves to such censorships, Schwartzel boiled it down to Hollywood’s willingness to accept communist blood money. “So, if Disney makes a movie that offends the Chinese authorities, it's not just that movie that might be lost, but also theme park plans, consumer products plans. I mean, there's billions of dollars on the line for any of these relatively small infractions, “he said.
“One of the craziest examples in your book is the 2012 remake of the film, Red Dawn, starring another top star, Chris Hemsworth,” Tapper recalled. “China was supposed to be the antagonist in the movie, the country that conquers the United States, but after the film was shot, they made a little bit of a change.”
According to Schwartzel, China threaten the studio with withholding the movie from their people and so, “MGM spent a million dollars hiring a visual effects firm here in Burbank to go in and swap out the flags, swap out the dialogue, and make it a North Korean invasion.”
“Now, critics and even the writers of the film itself pointed out it was a little less plausible than a Chinese invasion,” he noted with a chuckle from Tapper. Schwartzel pointed out how that movie came out in 2012 and “since then it's been more than a decade we have not had a major studio put a movie into production with China as the villain.”
“Course not. Profits above all else,” Tapper declared in disgust.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s The Lead
February 8, 2022
5:49:24 p.m. EasternJAKE TAPPER: Now our “Behind China's Wall” series in which we go behind the fanfare and the glamor of the current Olympic games. The Chinese government, obviously, hoping to use the games to distract the world from its crackdowns on freedoms and crimes humanity and genocide.
Today, we'll look at how the Chinese government in effect censors much of what comes out of the Hollywood film industry. They don't do this, of course, through direct control. They do it through their enormous economic leverage and the fear from studios on missing out on a market of 1.4 billion people in China.
Here to discuss, Erich Schwartzel, he’s a Hollywood reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He's author of a brand new book just released today, it’s called Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy. Thank you. So for being here, Erich.
So, one of the films you write about, which really captures the impact of the Chinese government is able to have on American movies is found in Top Gun, released in the '80s, and its upcoming sequel. When the original was released in '86, offending China not a concern, but for the sequel, the studio has made a significant change to the look on the jacket of this iconic character, Maverick. Explain to folks what's going on here.
ERICH SCHWARTZEL: Yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, in 1986, not only was Hollywood not concerned about the Chinese market, but, I mean, do we have an example of more rah-rah cinema than Top Gun? I mean, enlistments shot up after that movie came out. And when this more recent version was advertised a couple of years ago, people noticed as you said, that the Taiwanese and the Japanese flag had been removed from Maverick’s jacket.
There's a very clear reason why. And that is, in the time between the original Top Gun and this reboot, China's box office has grown to be the biggest in the world and any movie produced by a Hollywood studio as expensive as Top Gun, needs that market often to turn a profit.
So, that means that even down to something as small as a flag on a jacket might need to be removed in case it offends the Chinese censors who decide whether or not this movie will get into those theatres.
TAPPER: Right. China, obviously, does not consider Taiwan to be an independent country. Anything that calls into question the One-China policy is a political third real for the communist government.
You write about Brad Pitt starring in the 1997 film, Seven Years in Tibet; another country that China has conquered. And being in that film landed Brad Pitt in very hot water with Chinese authorities. They essentially banned Brad Pitt and his film from China for years and years. Tell us more about that.
SCHWARTZEL: Yeah. Not only that, this was back in 1997 when the Chinese box office was an economic afterthought for studios, but Sony, which released Seven Years in Tibet, quickly learned that it was not just the studio access that was threatened by the release of this film – about a political exile and history that China would rather not see on the big screen – It was not the studio that was threatened but actually Sony proper.
And this explains a lot whenever you see how these conglomerates have taken over Hollywood. Why a movie that might seem like a minor production produced by a subdivision of a subdivision actually becomes this kind of radioactive element that threatens the entire corporate structure.
So, if Disney makes a movie that offends the Chinese authorities, it's not just that movie that might be lost, but also theme park plans, consumer products plans. I mean, there's billions of dollars on the line for any of these relatively small infractions.
TAPPER: One of the craziest examples in your book is the 2012 remake of the film, Red Dawn, starring another top star, Chris Hemsworth. China was supposed to be the antagonist in the movie, the country that conquers the United States, but after the film was shot, they made a little bit of a change. Tell us about that.
SCHWARTZEL: I mean, it was a costly change. The movie had finished filming with the story being China invading the U.S. in this remake. Of course, in the original, it was the Soviets. This time, they updated it for the 2010s and made it China. And then when China made it clear that they were going to be very angry if this movie came out as it was shot, MGM spent a million dollars hiring a visual effects firm here in Burbank to go in and swap out the flags, swap out the dialogue, and make it a North Korean invasion.
Now, critics and even the writers of the film itself pointed out it was a little less plausible than a Chinese invasion. But nonetheless, this lesson was absorbed by all of Hollywood because ever since then – that came out in 2012 – since then it's been more than a decade we have not had a major studio put a movie into production with China as the villain.
TAPPER: Course not. Profits above all else.
