International Business : China Film Import Reform Barely Kicking

Even as China’s masses flock to watch actor Bruce Willis battle bank robbers in a Mandarin-dubbed version of “Die Hard With a Vengeance,” the Chinese film industry remains in the grip of a greater die-hard: the government’s entrenched monopoly over film imports.

Movie moguls in China and Hollywood alike had been expecting a liberalization of China’s film import and distribution system. But internal debate about how the reforms should go and a conservative policy-making atmosphere in Beijing are dimming prospects for any dramatic breakthrough soon.

Expectations for change have been high since October, when Chinese studios said after an industry meeting that they would be allowed to import and distribute foreign films directly, bypassing China Film, the government monopoly importer. Chinese officials never acknowledged that any new policy was in the works but said the matter was under discussion.

By November, at an international film festival in Shanghai, authorities were hinting at a slower pace of reform. Cornered recently by reporters, Tian Congming, the radio, film and television vice minister, reaffirmed China Film’s import monopoly. But he also indicated that distribution rights were to be extended to regional studios.

Another industry convention, which ended Dec. 28, is believed to have reinforced the status quo. Officials would not comment on the meeting but said a statement on its results would be forthcoming. They added that the liberalization of import rights, originally intended to boost financially crippled studios, was so far just “wishful thinking on the studios’ part,” according to one film ministry official.

Said Zhang Runchang, a manager at China Film: “Just because the film studios think they’re going to get import rights doesn’t mean it’s government policy.”

All this is not to say that the government monopoly will not be changed or that reform is not inching forward, industry analysts say. Far from making hard and fast decisions, authorities are floating changes in movie import policy “like sending up a balloon to see who shoots at it,” said one U.S. film executive based in Asia.

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China Film, for one, has good reason to take aim at any policy changes: 60% of its $12 million in 1994 revenue came from imports. And the government recognizes that “China Film’s 40 years of experience in importing and distributing foreign movies,” as well as its knowledge and connections in the industry, are unrivaled by the studios, the film ministry official said.

And since top authorities feel safe about China Film, “why should they relinquish control” over such a vital propaganda tool, the U.S. film executive asks.

Indeed, China’s leaders have stepped up calls to toe the line or “maintain strict unity of thought with the party’s central committee,” as President Jiang Zemin told propaganda officials earlier this week. A tense political climate and brewing social tensions are working against the regime’s loosening its grip on ideological areas such as culture and film.

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This, of course, does not mean denying Chinese moviegoers their foreign film fix in 1996. Hard on the heels of “Die Hard With a Vengeance,” industry sources say, China Film plans to break out “Outbreak,” starring Dustin Hoffman; a new Jackie Chan effort, scheduled for the Chinese New Year; and “A Walk in the Clouds” from Twentieth Century Fox.

China Film has also been negotiating leases for movies such as “Apollo 13,” “GoldenEye” and “Waterworld.” But it remains unclear whether these will make it into Chinese cinemas. “We’ve already seen some of those films and canned them--they were inappropriate” for Chinese audiences, Zhang said.

This year’s imports continue the profit-sharing plan between China Film and Hollywood, under which China imported eight major foreign movies last year, including such box-office hits as “True Lies,” “Forrest Gump” and “The Lion King.”