Research
China’s strict regulation of entertainment imports, including foreign films, violates the country’s World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, as determined in a 2007 WTO decision calling for China to open its film market to foreign films. After years of noncompliance and inaction, China partially opened its film market in 2012 following a deal with the United States. The deal allowed for the import of 34 films each year—up from the previous limit of 20 films—in exchange for a temporary suspension of further U.S. WTO actions against China’s film importation policies. During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s September 2015 visit to the United States, the Motion Picture Association of America and China Film Group reached two new film agreements, which could increase market access for foreign films in China. Based on recent history, however, promises that China will further open its film market should be viewed skeptically.
Chinese box office sales have increased alongside China’s standard of living, resulting in China surpassing Japan as the world’s second largest film market (behind the United States) in 2012. If global film market growth rates remain consistent over the next few years, many experts expect China to surpass the United States as the largest film market in the world as early as 2018. Hollywood relies on China’s film market for revenue, but the process to get films into China is arduous due to strict and opaque regulation of film imports. China’s regulations and processes for approving foreign films reflect the Chinese Communist Party’s position that art, including film, is a method of social control. As a result of these regulations, Hollywood filmmakers are required to cut out any scenes, dialogue, and themes that may be perceived as a slight to the Chinese government. With an eye toward distribution in China, American filmmakers increasingly edit films in anticipation of Chinese censors’ many potential sensitivities.
Research
This Staff Report assesses the political realities that have limited Taiwan’s participation in global fisheries management, and the ways by which Taiwan has leveraged the size, geographic range, and technical capabilities of its fishing industry to take modest and pragmatic steps to expand its participation in bilateral, regional, and international fisheries-related agreements.
Research
This issue brief provides information and analysis of the precipitous collapse of China’s stock market, including the impacts of the fall, the measures employed by China’s government to stem the rout, and the history of volatility in the market before the fall.
Hearings
The hearing will examine China’s use of standards, regulation, and censorship as a market-entry barrier. It will also examine China’s use of cyber espionage to gather information for commercial purposes, including turning over U.S. intellectual property to competing Chinese state-owned enterprises. Lastly, the Commission looks forward to hearing these expert witnesses address the recent breach of the OPM and related hacking of federal agencies.
Research
On May 20, 2015, a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon surveillance plane flew from Clark Air Base in the Philippines to three South China Sea reefs—Subi Reef, Mischief Reef, and Fiery Cross Reef—where China has been undertaking extensive land reclamation projects in an apparent attempt to bolster its territorial claims and establish a permanent military presence in its near seas. This is just one of several actions the U.S. government has recently taken to “name and shame” China for its increasingly assertive behavior in the South China Sea. It remains to be seen whether this strategy will prompt China to reconsider its current behavior.