Two widely followed Chinese public figures — one an editor for a state media outlet, the other the son of a former party chief — released identical outlines on Tuesday of countermeasures Chinese authorities are said to be considering in response to Trump’s tariffs.
The U.S. film industry so far has escaped direct retaliation from countries hit by President Donald Trump‘s globe-spanning tariffs, thanks to theatrical film releases and streaming platforms being categorized as services rather than physical goods. But Hollywood’s luck in China, the world’s second-largest film market, could soon run out, according to statements issued Tuesday by two influential public figures in the country.
With trade relations between Washington and Beijing spiraling, two widely followed Chinese bloggers posted an identical set of measures that local authorities are said to be mulling in response to Trump’s 54 percent tariffs on all Chinese goods, which the president vowed to increase to 104 percent if Beijing didn’t back down from a pledge to match the current U.S. tariff rate. The list of mooted moves includes “reducing or banning the import of U.S. films,” as well as increasing tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods and U.S. services, among other countermeasures.
The potential plans were shared simultaneously over local social media by Liu Hong, a senior editor at the state-backed Xinhua News Agency, and Ren Yi, the influential and widely followed grandson of Ren Zhongyi, former Communist Party chief of Guangdong Province. Both figures attributed the outlined proposals to unnamed sources familiar with authorities’ planning. Bloomberg News was the first Western outlet to cover their statements.
The U.S. studios’ earnings in China have declined drastically in recent years as local tastes have shifted away from Hollywood franchise spectacle toward the country’s homegrown Chinese-language blockbusters. But losing all access to the Chinese market could still ding the studios’ bottom lines. Warner Bros. and Legendary’s A Minecraft Movie opened in China in first place last weekend with ticket sales of $14.5 million, just over 10 percent of its $144 international earnings haul. In 2024, the biggest U.S. release in the country was Warner Bros. and Legendary’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire with a hefty $132 million China box office total.
Chinese authorities hold a firm grip over every aspect of film distribution in the country and they have worked tirelessly over the years to boost local content at the expense of imported movies. Under former trade agreements, China committed to releasing 34 foreign films per year under revenue-share terms, with overseas studios permitted to a 25 percent share of ticket sales. Other films, usually smaller-budget titles, are imported via a buy-out system, where a local distributor pays a flat fee to release the movie in Chinese theaters. China’s film regulators also maintain strict censorship standards for film content and choose the release dates for all movies, reserving the most lucrative holiday windows for local Chinese films.
