Let’s Care About Tibet Again
In June of 1998, one hundred and twenty thousand young people came to RFK Stadium to watch the biggest bands in the world play songs and call out the Chinese Communist Party. The event was called Free Tibet and it was about bringing attention to the genocide there.
Today, you rarely hear about Tibet (the last Free Tibet rock concert was held in 2003).
The reason is not because Tibet became free. The genocide of the Tibetans continues unabated, perhaps accelerated even.
What has changed, instead, is the size of the Chinese entertainment market, in particular, their domestic box office.
Back in 1998, a Hollywood studio could release films about the Dali Llama like Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet and the Chinese government’s angry reaction didn’t much matter.
Today, China generates more box office dollars than the US.
This can make all the difference to a Hollywood studio.
Take the film WarCraft (2016). This was the quintessential bloated box office bomb – it cost almost $300mm to make, scored abysmally on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed less than $50mm at the US box office. This is the sort of disaster that in past times would have cost a studio head his job.
But today is different - China exists. WarCraft made over $200mm in China and ended up a hit. No one got fired.
Now, China being a totalitarian state controlled by a one-party mafia, they are particular about what gets seen in their country. If you offend them, they don’t just ban your film, they ban your slate of films for the next five years as they did to Disney for releasing Kundun.
Every American studio makes their films now understanding that reality. You no longer celebrate the Dali Llama. You go out of your way to genuflect to the Chinese Communist Party.
A foreign government is having their way with American movies and you the movie goer barely notice it
Remember when the British actress Tilda Swinton was cast as The Ancient One in Doctor Strange (2016) and woke Twitter was up in arms about Hollywood white-washing a role meant for an Asian?
Well, the actual reality was more insidious. The Ancient One was a Tibetan male which was offensive to the Chinese censors (you are not supposed to acknowledge that Tibet is a thing). The studio made her a white woman to avoid any controversy (see here).
Red Dawn (2012) was originally made to depict a Chinese invasion given they are our current major geopolitical adversary (the original made in the 80s depicted a Soviet invasion). Upon seeing the final product, the studio had a panic attack and did an extensive series of post-production digital edits to change the villain to North Korea (see here). You were none the wiser when you watched the film.
American studios not only avoid casting the CCP as an enemy but actively hue to their political narratives. Tom Cruise wore a jacket in Top Gun (1986) that featured the Taiwanese flag. In the 2021 remake, this flag is gone.
This acquiescence extends to the stars themselves. No one wants to end up like Richard Gere who has been all but banned from studio films for continuing his advocation on behalf of Tibet (see here).
When Captain America, John Cena, called the country of Taiwan, a country, he not only took back his statement but did a lengthy apology in Mandarin (see here).
Could you imagine an icon of American manliness like John Wayne apologizing in Russian to the Russians for calling Poland a country?
At this point if the Chinese wanted Darth Vader and the Evil Empire to be re-written as the good guys, Disney would no doubt force some screen writer to go make that happen.
The irony of Hollywood cozying up to a totalitarian regime that is actively erasing its minority groups is that it is occurring while Hollywood (at least purportedly) has never been more concerned about the issue of human rights and social justice.
If you were one of the few people who tuned into last year’s Academy Awards, you witnessed an orgy of virtue signaling on various progressive social issues. Nominee after nominee gleefully pilloried America’s political system and its leaders and history.
However, not a word was mentioned of China’s concentration camps for Muslims or the Tibetan monks who self-immolate or the Hong Kong students who have been thrown in jail for writing an op-ed.
Not a word was mentioned because Hollywood stars get it.
Standing tall in support of woke orthodoxy earns you accolades. You get called a courageous hero who speaks “truth to power” (which is ironic because the powers that be from the mainstream media to corporations are all aping these talking points themselves).
Calling into question a genocidal regime, earns you an uncomfortable silence – even an attack from other celebrities - they maybe even call you an anti-China racist. The establishment will do what it can to silence you as you are killing their golden goose.
Just look at what happened to the GM of the Houston Rockets. He tweeted support for Hong Kong and then found himself being castigated by Lebron James for “not being really educated on the situation” (see here). He was roundly condemned by the NBA and then quietly fired a year later. The Chinese buy sneakers and that trumps concentration camps.
We now live in a country where American corporations and the elite loudly signal their belief in the view that America is an intrinsically racist and oppressive place while at the same time entirely ignoring China’s very real subjugations of its minority groups.
This current state of affairs is nothing but a dream come true for the man accelerating the CCP’s various genocidal policies – China’s dictator for life – Xi Jinping.
Is Xi actively funding the various social justice movements in America as some think tanks believe (see here)?
Who knows but undoubtedly nothing makes him happier than seeing Americans erupt over social justice issues and questioning our own history and values.
Afterall, how can we call out Xi Jinping’s atrocities when we proclaim that we ourselves are systematically racist and inviting the UN to come investigate us for our sins (see here)?
While we are losing our moral courage in a sea of meaningless virtue signaling and self-flagellation, an economic and military threat that surpasses Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany is spreading its wings and seeing what it can get away with.
It is not inconceivable that following the Winter Olympics in Beijing (which will take place in six months), China makes a move on Taiwan. Xi has made it clear that he intends to “solve” Taiwan during his tenure. If there was ever a moment, the near future is it.
Hopefully, by then we have quit our descent into woke madness and realized the real atrocities that are occurring.