The Dalian Wanda Group, a Chinese entertainment company, is looking to buy Dick Clark Productions for $1 billion, the New York Times reported Friday, a move into television for a company chiefly concerned with the silver screen.
Describing it as “the world’s biggest owner of movie theaters, with complexes across the United States, Europe and Australia,” the Times noted that critics have raised concerns about the company’s ties to Chinese political leadership.
“The Justice Department has been asked to review Wanda’s recent purchases because of fears that the company, which has financial ties to relatives of senior Chinese Communist leaders, could be trying to influence how China is portrayed in films,” said the Times.
Major Hollywood movie studios in recent years have been known to alter movie productions so as to ensure a warm reception by Beijing, with movie aficionado website Screen Rant in May listing 15 such occasions in recent memory where “drastic changes” were made with either Chinese audiences or Chinese government censors in view.
As Deadline Hollywood reported on Oct. 6, at least one influential congressman has recently expressed concern over Dalian Wanda’s acquisitions of U.S. movie-theater chains and its minority ownership stake in Paramount Pictures.
Texas Republican John Culberson, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, wrote to Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin, requesting him to see if existing federal law was being “effectively used as a tool to address foreign lobbying and propaganda efforts in the United States, especially by countries like China and Russia” and if not to provide him with “legislative options Congress may consider to ensure transparency, full disclosure and to mitigate … foreign propaganda influence over American media[.]”
Besides the annual “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest” aired every Dec. 31 on ABC, Dick Clark Productions owns the rights to the Miss America broadcast and five awards show programs, including the Country Music Awards and the Golden Globes.
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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