Sony Bucks Beijing By Refusing to Censor Spiderman Movie
China has long been exploiting their citizenry, thanks to their commitment to the cruel tenets of authoritarian communism and their unwavering disregard for even the most basic of human rights. Â This has allowed the CCP to treat Chinese citizens like cattle, working low-paying jobs to produce goods that can then flood the international market, essentially milking them for money.
In order to keep the people of China happy in this arrangement, the government has had to severely limit the sorts of ideas that can be viewed in art or books, lest their human livestock were to get some strange ideas about freedom.
In order to do this, China has leveraged their enormous consumer base against some of the west’s most powerful entertainment companies, demanding that they tamp down certain references in books, films, television, and music.
A recent attempt to manipulate one Marvel’s biggest blockbusters has not gone Beijing’s way, however.
Sony reportedly refused the Chinese government’s demand to scrub the Statue of Liberty from Spider-Man: No Way Home.
According to Puck on Sunday, citing “multiple sources,” the Chinese government requested the Statue of Liberty be digitally removed from the film, despite its inclusion in a pivotal scene. Sony rejected the request.
The Chinese government then asked if the Statue of Liberty could be, according to Puck, “minimized in the sequence: if Sony could cut a few of the more patriotic shots of [Tom] Holland standing atop the crown, or dull the lighting so that Lady Liberty’s visage wasn’t so front-and-center.” Sony considered the request, but declined.
China has demanded several changes to major movies throughout the years, including a massive adjustment to the end of Fight Club, in which the protagonists’ plot to destroy the credit banking system was removed and replaced with an epilogue stating that all of the characters involved were arrested by police…even the character that was a figment of someone’s imagination the whole time.