Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) announced plans to introduce new legislation that will block the Department of Defense (DOD) from cooperating with film studios that edit or alter their movies for audiences in China.
Cruz said he will introduce “The Stopping Censorship, Restoring Integrity, Protecting Talkies Act” (SCRIPT Act) when the Senate is next in session. According to a press release, it forms part of Cruz’s plan to “combat China’s growing influence over what Americans see and hear, which includes legislation targeting information warfare from the Chinese Communist Party across higher education, sports, films, radio broadcasts, and more.”
“From buying media outlets to broadcasting propaganda into America to coercing Hollywood studios and sports leagues to self-censor by threatening to cut off access to one of the biggest markets for sports and entertainment in the world, the Chinese Communist Party spends billions and billions of dollars to mislead Americans about China and shape what our citizens see, hear, and think,” Cruz said in a statement.
The senator said these activities are “part of China’s whole-of-state approach to amass more influence around the world through information warfare,” and called for it to be stopped.
“For too long, Hollywood has been complicit in China’s censorship and propaganda in the name of bigger profits. The SCRIPT Act will serve as a wake-up call by forcing Hollywood studios to choose between the assistance they need from the American government and the dollars they want from China,” he added.
The DOD has a long-standing relationship with Hollywood and has worked with television and movie studios on films for nearly 100 years to accurately depict military stories and make sure sensitive information isn’t disclosed. The DOD has provided assistance on include James Bond film “Goldfinger,” “Apollo 13,” “Armageddon,” “Jurassic Park III,” “Top Gun,” and “Iron Man,” among many others.
A number of film studios often edit their movies before they are aired in China in order to appease the Chinese regime’s strict censorship rules, which include restrictions on films the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) says undermines so-called social stability, stirs up opposition to the law or constitution, endangers national security, or harms national dignity, as well as movies containing graphic nudity, sex, and violence.
For example, key scenes involving Freddie Mercury’s sexuality were either muted or removed from “Bohemian Rhapsody” when the movie aired in China last year, The Associated Press reported. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) also reedited its remake of the 1984 cult classic “Red Dawn” to depict the North Koreans, rather than the Chinese, as occupying America due to concerns about angering China’s censorship laws, according to the Los Angeles Times.
In a press release last week, Cruz also announced legislation to prevent Chinese media outlets from exploiting Federal Communications Commission rules to broadcast “propaganda” to U.S. audiences from radio stations in Mexico or Canada.
“China should not be able to set up shop in Mexico and blanket America with propaganda. Every year, the CCP spends billions of dollars purchasing news outlets and waging information warfare to extend the reach of its propaganda and whitewash the unflattering and politically inconvenient truths about its totalitarian regime,” Cruz said in a statement.
The Chinese Communist Party has also been widely criticized for its lack of transparency regarding the CCP virus, a novel coronavirus that emerged from China and triggered a pandemic.
As The Epoch Times has previously reported, CCP officials knew in early December that the virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, had appeared in Wuhan, but chose not to share this vital information with the rest of the world, instead arresting those who tried to warn of the danger, including doctors and medical experts, and employing the regime’s rigorous censorship to prevent media coverage and to delete any mentions of it from social media.
As a consequence of the CCP’s actions, the virus has created a global pandemic, killing thousands and leaving economies devastated as countries around the world shut down businesses in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.
Self-Censoring Goes Against Democratic Principles: Professor
Fordham University Professor of Communications and Media Studies Paul Levinson agrees with the bill. He says it goes against democratic principles for the DOD to help film makers who allow the Chinese regime to censor their films just so they can tap into the Chinese market.
“The last thing we want as a democracy is to make it easier for a totalitarian, non democratic society, like China to basically splice up our movies and alter the story of the movie that the makers of the movie wanted to tell,” Levinson told NTD in an interview.
Critics have accused Hollywood and the U.S. Navy of giving in to the Chinese regime’s censorship. In the original 1986 film “Top Gun” starring Tom Cruise, Maverick Mitchell flaunts a leather bomber jacket with a patch showing the Taiwanese flag. Yet in the trailer to the 2020 sequel, we see the same jacket but with no Taiwanese flag. According to Spy Culture podcast producer Tom Secker, they did that to get into the Chinese market.
Professor Levinson said the Chinese regime censors films to regulate the information its people get.
“They’re totalitarian thinkers, meaning in a totalitarian society, the assumption is the people in power know best,” he said. “They know what’s best for the people. And they see it as their responsibility in order to keep people happy and peaceful and not aggravated to regulate the information that they get.”
Levinson said the bill can be amended or broken up into pieces after it’s introduced. He suspects most senators and congresspeople will agree with at least one part of the bill—the part that discourages American film makers from catering to the Chinese regime’s tastes.
