Watching Hollywood films and TV shows, you might notice something missing: Chinese bad guys.

Even though China is widely acknowledged as the U.S.’s main strategic rival, we rarely see Chinese villains in our contemporary stories. Instead, we are treated to the same old nefarious Russians, Islamic terrorists, trans-national criminals and occasionally a dodgy character from a smaller country.

The reason for this is straightforward: China is a market that Hollywood covets.

In 2019, for example, the China Film Administration and box office analytics firms like EntGroup and Box Office Mojo estimated that Hollywood generated $11 billion in box office revenue, with big-budget films like "Avengers: Endgame" and "The Lion King" leading the way.

Those numbers slumped during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they rebounded to $7.5 billion in 2022, the last year somewhat accurate numbers are available.

The pandemic, however, is not the only reason revenue is down for Hollywood fare in China. A native film industry has developed, which the Chinese government has been careful to nurture. And the growing Chinese middle class has shown a growing preference for local stories.

Hollywood's kowtowing to China has certainly not gone unnoticed.

In October 2019, the second episode of the 23rd season of the cartoon series, South Park, titled “Band in China” appeared and parodied this issue. The episode shows Chinese officials on the set of a movie censoring the production in real time as a real (and hilarious) send-up of Chinese censorship abroad.

The episode got positive reviews in the U.S., but it created an uproar in China, where South Park was subsequently banned.

Even though Hollywood censors itself due to Chinese pressure, China feels no pressure to avoid the portrayal of Americans as villains in its growing film industry. In films like “The Founding of a Republic,” “

© The Hill