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https://scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3154198/china-culture-export-push-it-seeks-expand-soft-power-overseas
Tech/ Tech Trends

China in ‘culture export’ push as it seeks to expand soft power overseas with global media platforms

  • One purpose of the policy framework is to encourage exports of ‘films, television episodes and video games’
  • Authorities have designated 29 districts and places as China’s production centres of traditional artworks as well as films, video games and books
Beijing’s definition of “cultural” products and services is broad and includes everything from silk scarves to porcelain vases. Photo: Handout

The Chinese government is pushing exports of the country’s “cultural products” to the rest of the world, including helping domestic companies to build up global new media platforms, in Beijing’s latest move to boost its soft power on the global stage.

A group of 17 Chinese government agencies, led by the Ministry of Commerce in charge of services trade, the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Parry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education, this week jointly issued policy guidelines to boost the country’s “national cultural export bases”, namely 29 districts and places designated by the government as China’s production centres of traditional artworks as well as films, video games and books.

Related businesses registered in these designated “bases”, which include the Dongcheng and Chaoyang districts of Beijing, Xuhui district of Shanghai, Wuxi of Jiangsu province, as well as Changsha in Hunan and Kunming in Yunnan, will be entitled to a long list of preferred treatment, including funding support, strict intellectual property protection and easier visa processes for foreign employees, according to a document posted by the 17 government agencies this week.

One purpose of the policy framework is to encourage exports of “films, television episodes and video games”, according to the document.

It also states that the government will encourage the “bases” to carry out cooperation with “overseas new media platforms” to broaden the channels for Chinese cultural products to an overseas audience.

The new policy encourages companies to “carry out cultural investment and cooperation abroad, build international marketing networks and branches, and expand the scale of quality cultural assets abroad”. If there is a condition, it said, “companies are supported to build new media platforms that cover the entire world”.

The move comes at a time when the Chinese government is struggling to boost the country’s “soft power” in overseas markets, amid rising tensions with the West over a range of trade, tech and political issues. Meanwhile, Beijing is tightening control over which aspects of foreign culture Chinese consumers can access. China, for example, has kept the Korean-made Squid Game, one of the hottest shows on Netflix currently, out of the country officially after Beijing deemed its content to be at odds with the country’s traditional values.

Beijing’s definition of “cultural” products and services is broad and includes everything from silk scarves to porcelain vases. According to the most recent breakdown of data from the Ministry of Commerce, China’s exports of cultural products in 2019 were worth US$100 billion while imports were only worth US$11.6 billion. But in terms of cultural and entertainment services trade, China imported US$4 billion worth of such services in 2019, far exceeding its exports of US$1.2 billion.

The jury is still out on how Beijing’s renewed push will help to boost China’s “cultural exports”.

At a press conference in September, the commerce ministry listed a few examples, including a movie and television production base in Zhejiang creating an “export platform” of Chinese television shows. The platform has snapped up more than 5 million subscribers overseas.

However, while certain Chinese technology firms have been quick to gain global influence, such as ByteDance, whose short video app TikTok has won over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, there has also been push back by some countries, such as the US and India, amid national security and data privacy concerns.