Don’t count on it
On October 1 of last year, the New York Times printed an op-ed from Regina Ip, executive council and legislative council of Hong Kong, headlined ‘Hong Kong is China, Like it or Not’. Ip advocated on behalf of China’s new ‘security’ law in Hong Kong. This law employed harsh police and military tactics to crack down on pro-democracy protests and resulted in the arrest of Apple Daily editor Jimmy Lai. This week, Apple Daily itself was shut down and several of the newspaper’s journalists were also arrested.
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China’s Communist Party and its American Media Enablers
Much of major U.S. media is controlled not by media corporations, but entertainment-media corporations, and it’s the entertainment that gives the Chinese Communist Party leverage.
To understand the media’s vulnerabilities, you should know who owns what:
- NBC News, CNBC, and MSNBC are owned by Comcast which also owns Universal Pictures which is a minority partner to five Chinese state-owned companies in the Universal Beijing Resort. The resort will feature attractions from Universal properties, like Harry Potter and Jurassic World, and licensed properties from other American entertainment companies, such as Warner Brothers and Paramount Pictures, giving Beijing a single point of pressure on several U.S. media firms. In 2016, Universal and China’s Perfect World Pictures announced a $500 million co-financing deal of a slate of films.
- ABC News is owned by The Walt Disney Company which also owns Walt Disney Studios and participates in the Shanghai Disney Resort, where it is a 43% partner to three Chinese companies controlled by the government of the city of Shanghai. The resort saw 11 million visitors in its first year of operation and is a major contributor to Disney’s earnings. Disney also owns 80% of ESPN which shied away from covering the story of Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey’s tweet supporting Hong Kong demonstrators and the ensuing controversy.
- CBS News is owned by ViacomCBS which also owns Paramount Pictures and ViacomCBS Networks International, the latter of which produces MTV and Nickelodeon for the Chinese market.
- CNN is owned by AT&T’s WarnerMedia which controls NBA TV. NBA TV had its broadcasts in China suspended in 2019 after the Daryl Morey’s controversy, which prompted the league and its leading players to distance themselves from the protests. WarnerMedia is also a 49% participant in Flagship Entertainment, a film production company located in Hong Kong; the other major participant is venture capital firm China Media Capital.
