Chinese Government Mulling Ban Of Hollywood Films As Part Of Retaliation Against President Donald Trump's Tariffs

Apr 08, 2025

The Chinese Communist Party is reportedly mulling a ban of Hollywood films in China in retaliation against President Donald Trump and his administration’s newly enacted tariffs.

According to The Hollywood Reporter’s Patrick Brzeski, Senior Editor of China’s Xinhua News Agency Liu Hong and the grandson of former Communist Party chief of the Guangdong Province Ren Yi simultaneously shared to social media six steps the communist government is looking at to retaliate against Trump’s tariffs.

Bloomberg’s Josh Xiao indicated the six steps are to:

Suspend cooperation related to fentanyl
Increase tariffs on US agricultural products like soybeans and sorghum
Ban US poultry
Impose restrictions on US services in China
Reduce or ban the import of US films
Investigate the intellectual property benefits of US companies that work within China

Back in February, President Donald Trump enacted a 10% tariff on imports from China, and an additional 25% tariff on Canada, and Mexico “to hold [them] accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country.”

Earlier this month he announced a global 10% tariff on all countries and he would “impose an individualized reciprocal higher tariff on the countries with which the United States has the largest trade deficits.”

China was hit with a 34% tariff as part of the individualized tariff. China retaliated against President Trump and the United States by imposing a 34% tariff of its own. President Donald Trump then indicated he would impose another 50% tariff on China.

He wrote on Truth Social “if China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated!”

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China responded to this vowing to “fight til the end.”

In a thread on X, the Chinese Embassy in the US posted, “China firmly opposes the US’s threat of 50% additional tariffs. China will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its rights and interests should the US escalate its tariff measures.”

“The U.S. so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’ against China are groundless and a typical practice of unilateral bullying,” it continued. “The countermeasures China has adopted are entirely legitimate actions aimed at protecting its sovereignty, security, and development interests, as well as maintaining a normal international trade order.”

Next, they stated, “The U.S. tariff escalation threat against China compounds its mistake and further exposes its nature of blackmail, which China will never accept.

It then declared, “China will fight till the end if the U.S. side is bent on going down the wrong path.”

“There is no winner in a trade war and protectionism leads nowhere. Pressuring and threatening are not the right way to engage with the country,” China concluded. “China urges the United States to immediately correct its wrongdoings, cancel all unilateral tariff measures against China, stop its economic and trade suppression, and settle differences with China properly through equal-footed dialogue on the basis of mutual respect.”

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that China would face a 104% tariff beginning on Wednesday.

She said, “It was a mistake for China to retaliate. … When America is punched, [President Trump] punches back harder. That's why there will be 104% tariffs going into effect on China tonight at midnight."

As for a ban on Hollywood films in China, it is unlikely to have that much of an impact. As an example, A Minecraft Movie, which has grossed $323.4 million globally already only grossed $14.5 million in China. That’s only 4.5% of the film’s entire global gross.

Not only are Chinese audiences not seeing American-made films anymore, the returns for U.S. studios are not as good in China. U.S. studios typically only receive 25% of grosses in China. So in the A Minecraft Movie example Warner Bros. is likely only seeing a return of $3.6 million.

Looking at some of the top grossing films in 2024, Inside Out 2 had a global gross of $1.6 billion. China only accounted for $47.4 million. That’s only 2.7% of the global gross. Similarly, Deadpool & Wolverine had a global gross of $1.3 billion. China only accounted for $59.6 million. That’s just 4.4% of the global gross.

Even in 2023, Barbie had a global gross of $1.4 billion. China only accounted for $34.4 million. That’s just 2.4% of the total gross. It’s the same story with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It had a global gross of $1.3 billion. Only $23.7 million was from China. That’s just 1.7% of the global gross.