The Propaganda War between the US and China

In his series of novels on the political history of the United States, Gore Vidal included one entitled “Hollywood.” It is, among other things, the story of how President Woodrow Wilson promoted the film industry, and Hollywood in particular, as a propaganda tool during World War I. The protagonists of the novel are film producers where the Germans appear as villains of unusual perversity. With this, Vidal illustrated the role of Hollywood as a central political instrument in the history of the United States. The trend continues to this day -– just look at the prominent role of figures such as Lady Gaga or Jennifer Lopez in President Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony.

For most of the 20th century, Hollywood constituted the farthest-reaching benchmark in the realm of popular culture, at least in Western countries. Even in Soviet-orbiting countries, American films were clandestinely coveted objects for a population fed up with authors of socialist cinema. Hollywood was not only a producer of entertainment, it was also an exporter of an aspirational and capitalist way of life, romanticizing the customs and styles of the American middle class as an imitable model. In other words, it was a powerful cultural magnet. So much so, that Hollywood became the most profitable film industry in the world. Until last year.

In 2020, imported films accounted for only one-sixth of the film market in China –- a 55% drop from the previous year. The steep drop in the import of U.S. films is directly related to the pandemic and the chaos it produced in Hollywood release dates, as was warned by the website Variety. Nevertheless, China is already the largest film market on the planet. Box office revenue from imported (Hollywood) movies accounted for just 16.3% of ticket sales in China during 2020.

Audiences purchased 548 million tickets in China in 2020, and total box office receipts reached $3.13 billion, surpassing the figures for the U.S. market the same year. A superficial reading would assume that this is of no significance outside the world of entertainment, or if anything, financial journalism. I hope I have made it clear that it has significant political repercussions. China’s new diplomacy in the world, known as Wolf Warrior Diplomacy, is known to be named after a series of action movies where, among other things, a heroic China defends the weak from the wickedness of Western countries.

It is true that Hollywood expects a pronounced recovery in 2021 as a result of Biden’s mass vaccination policy and financial bailout program for families. Still, increasing competition in the international film industry is predictable. The U.S. influence on popular culture continues to have a superior reach, thanks to—among others—its sports entertainment industry, generating $75.71 billion in 2020, and the video game industry, whose figures point to approximately $40.6 billion. All in all, China’s new five-year plan aims to achieve technological self-sufficiency, so it would not be unreasonable to expect greater international competition in the field of video games as well. An intensification of the battle for soft power, according to Professor Joseph S. Nye Jr. or, alternatively, an intensification of the struggle “for hearts and minds,” as the prestigious geopolitical strategist George Kennan called it.