What do Americans care about most this election cycle?
As usual, the economy tops the list: 75 percent of Americans name economic growth a “top priority.” Job creation isn’t far behind: 64 percent of Americans believe that policymakers should focus on improving the labor market. But don’t ignore the red elephant in the room: China. More than two-thirds of Americans claim that the large amount of U.S. debt held by China — roughly $1.2 trillion — is a “very serious” problem. Sixty percent of the American public says the same about the loss of U.S. jobs to China. All in all, only 38 percent view China favorably. Americans can read the tea leaves. Not only is China weaponizing 3,200 acres of man-made islands in the South China Sea, which The Hague recently found to have “no legal basis,” but Chinese companies closely aligned with the country’s ruling Communist Party are making major inroads in the U.S. movie and radio industries. The Chinese firm Dalian Wanda — whose founder and chairman, Wang Jianlin, is a former Communist deputy — has already bought AMC Entertainment and Legendary Entertainment for multibillion-dollar sums. Wanda is now interested in purchasing at least a portion of Lionsgate and Paramount Pictures, as well as merging their AMC theaters with Carmike Cinemas by the end of the year. The latter would create the country’s largest movie theater chain with 8,380 screens in more than 600 cinemas nationwide. The Communist Party is an avid financier: The Chinese government has provided Wanda with at least $1.1 billion since 2011. This is no accident. Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to “strengthen China’s soft power” and “build its capacity in international communication.” To influence public opinion globally, the Communist Party now spends about $10 billion annually on “external propaganda” alone. Michael Pillsbury, a scholar at the Hudson Institute, calls it China’s “100-year marathon” — a secret strategy to replace America as the global superpower by peaceful means. By assuming control of U.S. film studios and movie theater chains, Wanda also assumes the ability to block any movie unapproved by the Communist Party from being shown in its theaters — potentially casting China in a more favorable light at America’s expense. It allows Wanda to sell propaganda alongside buttered popcorn.It’s not a stretch. In 2015, Wanda financed Southpaw‘s $25 million production budget, becoming the first Chinese firm to “solely finance an American movie.” And the company left fingerprints everywhere. According to David Glasser—president of Weinstein Company, which produced and marketed the film—”[Wanda was] involved—it wasn’t just a silent investment.” Glasser went even further: “They were on the set and involved in production, postproduction, marketing, everything.”The radio industry is another platform for propaganda that the Communist Party has used to its advantage—through a private proxy, of course. The Chinese firm buying America’s airtime is called G&E Studio Inc., which is 60 percent owned by a Beijing-based group known as Guoguang Century Media Consultancy. Guoguang, in turn, is wholly owned by a subsidiary of China Radio International—China’s state-run radio broadcaster. This business structure allows the Chinese government to stealthily seize control of American airwaves: G&E Studio now broadcasts Chinese-centric news on at least 15 U.S. radio stations, from Boston to Los Angeles.It’s no surprise that James Su, the president and CEO of G&E Studio, has agreed to “endorse China’s ideology.” Endorse it is exactly what he does: One November 2015 segment on Washington, D.C.-based WCRW-1190 AM, for example, highlighted a story explaining the Chinese government’s concern about Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s recent visit to the Asia-Pacific region. An August 2015 broadcast claimed that tensions in the South China Sea were due to unnamed “external forces” attempting “to insert themselves into this part of the world using false claims” — not China’s development and weaponization of artificial islands.Where does the American public stand on Chinese takeovers?According to newly released polling data, almost 70 percent of Americans believe that the federal government should stop foreign government-involved incursions into the U.S. movie and radio industries if those foreign governments have a history of censorship like China does. The next president should listen to them — and confront America’s new red scare. Richard Berman is the president of Berman and Company, a public affairs firm in Washington, D.C. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
