Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

A piece in International Herald Tribune forwarded by reader John Shissler.

International Herald Tribune -- Aug 4, 2005 http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/03/yourmoney/media.php

Beijing to clamp down on foreign media
By Chris Buckley International Herald Tribune
THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2005

BEIJING China disclosed on Wednesday that it had frozen approvals for
foreign satellite broadcasters entering its market and would strengthen
restrictions on foreign television programs, books, newspapers and
performances in an effort to exercise tighter control over the country's
cultural life.

"Import of cultural products contrary to regulations will be punished
according to the circumstances, and in serious cases the import license
will be revoked," the rules, which were issued on Tuesday, stated. "In
the near future, there will be no more approvals for setting up cultural
import agencies" . . .

We have the tendency to think about globalization challenges us in terms of economics ("World is Flat" and all), but we typically vastly underestimate how much it challenges societies culturally. We think our "way of life" is challenged if Maytag goes Chinese, but imagine how scared we would be if Chinese movies and TV were suddenly flooding our marketplace, increasingly crowding out our stuff!

Actually, if you watch Cartoon Network as much as I am forced to, you realize this IS happening, except it's Japanese anime cleverly packaged with lots of round-eyed characters.

I understand China's fears. Hell, the Canadians go through this regularly. But it's a sensitive issue. Yesterday I got the list of proposed deletions from the Chinese publisher of PNM: basically all references to North Korea, Kim, Iran, the CCP going down for the count, Chinese threats to Taiwan, and the US planning for war with China.

Based on all the proposed deletions, you suspect the official line in China is: all is well with the world and there are no reasons for antipathy with the U.S. Reality is not nearly so nice, nor so clean-cut and easy for China. The leadership there has not grown up yet in terms of understanding China's growing international security profile. They keep acting like China is a minor security-wise even though it's clearly an adult economically-speaking. That just doesn't work.

But like all those satellite firms, you accept the restrictions for now in order to gain access to the market. For me, at least, I see no reason to deny all those non-English readers even the edited version of PNM.

I know that's hard to argue: patience. We want change and we want it fast. We identify the problem and we want it fixed. We're Americans, damn it!

But we forget how long it took to achieve what we have today in freedom, and how economics has always led the way, not politics.