Abstract
Since 2001, when China joined the WTO in order to further develop its economy and open it up internationally, the media sector in China has become an increasingly powerful economic tool that now lies at the intersection of political power and economic development. When studying China’s contemporary media and cultural landscape it is essential to look at the country’s broader political-economic context. Since the Mao era (Schurmann 1968; Teiwes 1993), particularly during the Communist Revolution (1949) and the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), media was considered as a powerful political and ideological tool (Rosen 1986; Xin 2003; Keane and Hemelryk Donald 2002; Zheng 2010). The Chinese media is a contributor to political and economic stability as it generates jobs, it is a source of entertainment, and it has become a significant source of revenue for the country. In 2012, television and film alone generated over US$15 billion in China (Oxford Economics 2013). In 2014, China’s total box office revenues alone reached close to US$4.8 billion (a 36% increase year on year), while in 2017, they increased by 80% compared to 2014 to US$8.6 billion (Shaffer 2015; Frater 2017).
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Notes
- 1.
In 1942, Mao’s talks emphasised the importance of culture in politics at the Yan’an Forum on Art and Literature.
- 2.
China’s Film Bureau is institutionally placed under the department of propaganda (DoP).
- 3.
This approach is quite similar in its structure to the former USSR or Hitler’s regime during WWII.
- 4.
Over more than six decades from 1949, to Mao’s death in 1976, to the present day.
- 5.
GATT- General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
- 6.
Originally GATT.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
As a reference point, China sold over US$50 billion worth of shares compared to US$24 billion for the US that year. 2010 was also a good year with the capitalisation of 22 Chinese companies on the NYSE including Youku, Bona Film Group and ChinaCache (Grocer 2010).
- 10.
Glen Loveland’s article has since been taken down from the Internet. He now seems to work for Chinese state-owned China Global Television Network (CGTN). Interestingly, he published an article about the changing power of China in Global Times the same year: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/434652.shtml
- 11.
Some of the reforms stopped dead in their tracks and reversed, which made the transition somewhat uncertain. This is particularly true for the media sector and the issue of censorship, which I will explore later in the third section of this chapter and in Chap. 4.
- 12.
The election of Donald Trump in November 2016 and his subsequent political decisions, notably in terms of protectionism and trade, could increase the pressure on the Chinese hybrid political-economic system as seen during the recent trade conflict personified between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.
- 13.
As previously seen under Sect. 3.1.1.
- 14.
Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba and one of the richest men in China has admitted that he is working with the government and that ‘one must always follow Chinese law’ (Ma 2012).
- 15.
The country’s economic growth.
- 16.
Sometimes in a coercive way.
- 17.
The government has banned many Western-based social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter in China, nonetheless it makes extensive use of them to promote its ideas worldwide (Heifetz 2015).
- 18.
The CCP could be criticised for not defending the national interests strongly enough, particularly with the recent forecasts of GDP slowdown (Xinhua 2016).
- 19.
Even though a majority of Chinese individuals are from Han ethnicity.
- 20.
2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen incidents.
- 21.
2010: potential influence of the Arab Spring and the Jasmine revolution.
- 22.
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT): Film Bureau in charge of enforcing quotas and censorship regulations in China.
- 23.
The General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP), a government body in charge of monitoring publishing, news groups and the Internet.
- 24.
State Administration of Press, Publications, Radio, Film and Television.
- 25.
On 13th March 2018, SAPPRFT was abolished and the film bureau was placed even closer to the government at cabinet-level. This initiative shows that the influence the control of the State over local media may intensify (Frater 2018).
- 26.
I will develop this aspect in Chap. 4.
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Poujol, P. (2019). Political-Economic Transformations in China. In: Online Film Production in China Using Blockchain and Smart Contracts. International Series on Computer Entertainment and Media Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02468-0_3
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