I agree with most of what you say, but as a Dane who grew up watching Hollywood movies portraying America, it’s also a little funny for this particular part, to be happening to America.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather be manipulated into liking a free society than a dictatorship, but I’m sure you follow where I’m going with this comment.
That's not really comparable because those are American movies. Is America preventing Europeans from making movies that portray America negatively?
If China makes its own movies where they are the heroes, that's fine, but they shouldn't be able to prevent anyone outside China from making movies where they are portrayed negatively.
This is in direct comparison to what China tacitly enforces. Good luck try to show the Chinese as the bad guys, much less the the government itself.
So no - I don't follow where you are going.
What would you do if there are no actual profits?
And China has been involved in all sorts of questionable financing schemes with recent Hollywood films.
There may be enclaves of people who are paying attention that ridicule China as the authoritarian travesty that it is... but Western pop culture, big business, and our government kowtow to China and its whims.
The first amendment protects people’s rights to shill for China in exchange for $$$. That’s what freedom of speech actually means.
What? I never suggested this.
> The first amendment protects people’s rights to shill for China in exchange for $$$. That’s what freedom of speech actually means.
Right. And China discovered this fitness gradient.
Luckily we can use taxes on negative externalities to adjust for the damage that is being done.
I'm suggesting that we tax all business activities in China because China has shown themselves to be an enemy of the West and of democracy. They pose an existential threat to both and we should begin taking additional measures to protect and secure our interests.
I'm not saying we tax pro-China messages or force companies to produce anti-Chinese sentiment. Don't reframe this as a free speech argument.
China has a demand for western media, and they cede small amounts of control when they let our messaging and culture reach them. By economically disincentivizing the creation of specialized media that is custom-tailored for consumption by the Chinese market, they are left with true and unfettered western culture. A culture that flies in the face of fascist narratives.
No one goes out of their way to create pro-Chinese media if there isn't something in it for them.
> Disincentivize this blatant attack on of our freedom of speech.
I'll quote you right here since you keep insisting you're not talking about free speech.
> Games are not permitted to promote LGBT acceptance.
I see lots of games that have LGBT characters. Isn't that what the Gamer Gaters keep whining about? That companies keep "virtue signaling" by pandering to minority groups?
But China isn't the only regressive society in the world. Corporations also sometimes avoid overtly endorsing progressive perspectives to avoid offending domestic conservatives. Should we also tax business activity in Alabama so companies aren't afraid to make LGBT-friendly games to cater to red states? The government isn't in the business of deciding which speech should be discouraged and which should be encouraged.
> China should not be able to control society outside of its own walls.
If you choose not to consume certain pieces of foreign media because you disagree with its philosophy or some other part of it are you also violating their country's sovereignty? E.g. if you decide not to read Harry Potter because the British slang confuses you, are you committing an unethical act by unduly pressuring British publishers to produce more America-friendly content?
> They are left with true and unfettered western culture. A culture that flies in the face of fascist narratives.
So much to unpack here
It’s companies that want access to China that are making these choices. It’s why foreign companies are afraid to deal with Cuba, Venezuela, or Iran.
How do you argue against it? It's a hypothetical event that hasn't occurred. You get to feel smug with your point and no one can actually disprove it.
I generally find people that are so aggressive with their passive announcement of political values aren't the type of people I want to associate with, but I'm not going to say someone wearing a MAGA hat should be banned from playing Overwatch. It wouldn't even occur to me as something to suggest.
The Chinese government has zero respect for free speech and as they gain more power outside China we're watching our own freedom of speech disappear.
So in this instance, people who support free speech and people who just oppose China are aligned.
Well if you think we should antagonize china for offending our freedoms, then we should be culling the nsa, fbi, and other 3 letter agencies that violate our constitutional right to privacy.
The US gov't and the chinese gov't are two faces on the same coin. The difference is the chinese gov't does what the US gov't does in the open.
Horrific tragedies have occurred in the US, like Kent State. But we know the truth about Kent State. We know the number of victims. It and similar events are included in our history textbooks. I know they are - that's how I learned about them! Tiananmen Square, we don't know the truth about. We don't know how many victims there were. The estimates range from hundreds to tens of thousands. And it certainly isn't included in history textbooks in China. It's likely one of the most fatal protest crackdowns in human history, but it is censored completely in the country where it occurred.
We're just descending into whatabout-ism at this point. The US has done plenty of horrific stuff. It shouldn't. We should be upset that it has. But that doesn't absolve China, and I don't think it's clear that they're even actually on similar footing.
The US government routinely practices Extraterritorial jurisdiction.
Anyone living abroad who was born in the US, currently holds US citizenship, or was at one point a "US person" to the IRS has to deal with financial institutions refusing to do business with them because of FACTA. [1]
The US has also been known pressure American companies to disclose data held abroad on foreign citizens. [2]
Recently the wife of a US diplomat killed a UK citizen in a road accident and fled back to the US while claiming diplomatic immunity. [3]
Yes, these examples are not of the US state entities or US corporations overtly using their financial interests to influence corporate policy abroad, but the US is hardly a model citizen when it comes to this claim.
I'd like to see more of every country (US, UK, China, Russia, etc) stop trying to "control society outside of its own walls" but this trend seems unlikely to change any time soon.
[1] https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=0e331f25-4e8a...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Corp._v._United_Stat...
[3] https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/06/uk/us-diplomat-wife-intl-...
China should not be able to control society outside of its own walls, yet they have blatantly influenced the behavior of our biggest mass media companies for years.
To be fair, they've done an outstanding job of it. They fund a huge number of film productions. They've bought out our cinema chains and gaming companies. All the while we never once see China portrayed as an enemy.
Games are not permitted to promote LGBT acceptance. Films sometimes bend backwards to include China as a strong and moral ally. These aren't just one-sided impacts of the Great Firewall - China is directly altering the media we create domestically. They're changing the world narrative to enhance their reputation and take power from their enemies. They'll happily fund films that are critical of American history (and even if that's justified, it's terribly one-sided).
And now what was once simply a chilling effect on what types of media could be created has now manifested as proactive enforcement of China's will. How long will it be before China can force westerners it disagrees with out of their jobs? We never imagined something like Blizzard's treatment of Blitzchung would be possible, yet now we're beginning to see how deep China's political tentacles reach.
We have to stop this.
Tax companies doing business in China.
Disincentivize this blatant attack on of our freedom of speech. Don't let China change our cultural zeitgeist.
Tax any and all domestic profits coming from China. Heavily.