International Law

Industrial Policy for China?s Entertainment Industry

By Stan

From the Hollywood Reporter (yes, I read that, so what?):

Chinese filmmakers should work on more co-productions with overseas partners, a senior film industry regulator said Tuesday at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

"All co-productions will be treated the same as domestic films in China," Jiang Ping, vice chairman of the Film Bureau of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, said at a forum about co-productions.

While Jiang’s pronouncement is not news, its repetition for the international audience here signals SARFT’s recognition that cooperation with overseas partners could bring creativity and cash to China’s strictly monitored film industry.

Co-productions, which must submit to China’s censorship guidelines, fall outside the legal limit of 20 imported films allowed to share box office revenue in China each year.

Is this local protectionism? Yes, and it should also be quite familiar to anyone dealing with the IT, automotive, mining and a lot of other sectors. We’re talking industrial policy here, with protection of infant industries.

Great stuff if you can get FDI to keep coming in to take advantage of the market. Nice way to use that movie quota to your advantage too - kudos to Beijing - as long as it keeps working.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on June 18, 2008 (boomark / email).