| Chinese company Wanda has announced it will buy AMC, the second-largest theater chain in the USA, increasing fears that the Chinese Communist Party is expanding its influence globally as part of a media takeover. "Beijing is investing heavily in projecting its "soft power," or cultural influence, by boosting Chinese state media's presence abroad, including the USA, where the Chinese government has also run advertisements in New York's Times Square," reports USA Today. Wanda's acquisition of AMC increases concerns that Chinese-style censorship of politically controversial movies may become commonplace in the United States. "We have no plan whatsoever to promote Chinese movies in the US market," said Wang Jianlin, Chairman and President of Wanda. Billionaire Jianlin, the 15th richest person in China according to Forbes, is also a "Communist Party member, who sits on the nation's top advisory council." However, box office money from the Chinese market is already influencing movie industry titans in America to tone down negative portrayals of China itself. During the 2009 production of Red Dawn, a re-make of the 1984 classic which featured Soviet troops invading America, producers changed the identity of the villains after initially having agreed to portray the bad guys as Chinese troops. When distributors became nervous about the film harming profits from Chinese movie-goers, MGM decided to ditch Chinese soldiers in favor of North Korean invaders. www.infowars.com by Paul ... |
