China bans Hollywood movies to protect its own film industry

China has banned Hollywood films, at least until February and possibly until May, over a trade row with the United States and because American movies are proving too successful and hitting box office for local films. Chinese authorities are also said to be miffed over the US's continued arms sales to Taiwan.

Hollywood movies are submitted to the all-powerful Sarft (State Administration of Radio Film & Television), China's main film bureau and censor, before approval.

The ban, which is the toughest clampdown on foreign movies since they were allowed back into the country, began last Saturday and will continue until the end of February at least, and some sources say it could continue until May. Crucially, the Asian and Chinese arms of the major studios have not been given any release slots in the first two months of 2008.

The row comes against the background of deteriorating relations between China and the West, which were highlighted by an aggressive speech by the EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson criticising Chinese trade practices.

The film bureau said it had not heard of any ban: "There's no such thing. We've never heard anything about this," a spokesman said, but industry sources say the order to stop Hollywood movies, which are very popular in China, came from high up, possibly from the propaganda ministry.

Among the films falling foul of the ban are Beowulf, Bee Movie and Stardust.

There is a lengthy list of issues dividing China and the US. Particularly irksome was a decision by Washington to file two cases in April at the World Trade Organisation against China: one over pirated copies of music and movies and another for placing market-access barriers against US companies offering legitimate products.

The Motion Picture Association, which represents the major Hollywood studios, is seen as being one of the main forces behind the cases. China also recently expressed its concern over the US sale of weapons to Taiwan and objected to Congress honouring the Dalai Lama.

There has also been a diplomatic spat centred on the USS Kitty Hawk and its strike group, which were denied permission to make a long-planned stopover in Hong Kong for Thanksgiving. Then Beijing changed its mind and said it could dock after all, by which time the Kitty Hawk was heading back to its home port in Japan via the Taiwan Strait. China voiced "grave concern" to Washington about the decision to pass through the narrow channel dividing mainland China from self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing considers its territorial waters.

But there is also a more fundamental issue Chinese films have to struggle to compete with the big Hollywood blockbusters the biggest movie in China this year is Transformers, which has only been outperformed on the all-time list in China by Titanic. Other Hollywood movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Spider-Man 3 have had great runs. Ang Lee's Lust, Caution has also been a big hit but because the director is Taiwanese and much of the money came from the US, it does not really count as a Chinese film, despite the Shanghai setting.

China's cinemas have been taking in major revenues of late, and although foreign players are having a nightmare time trying to gain a foothold in the tricky market, the cinemas are slowly becoming more important when it comes to showing films in China, despite the dominance of pirate DVDS at 50p a movie.

To help boost local movies, the screening of foreign films is tightly controlled in China and there is a quota system which permits just 20 foreign films per year to be released, on a revenue-sharing basis between the cinemas and the studios.

There are regular blackout periods for foreign films which are aimed at stopping Hollywood movies competing. This year has been a busy one already for shutdowns between 15 September and 30 October was the Outstanding Golden Domestic Film Exhibition Month, during which only patriotic home-produced fare could be shown.

There were other freezes from 20 June until 11 July and 21 July until 12 August, and it had been presumed that December would be for Chinese films only.

Interesting? Click here to explore further