Washington (AFP)

Redacted scripts and deleted scenes: Hollywood is accused in a report published Wednesday by the Pen America organization of censoring itself to allow its films to reach the gigantic Chinese market.

Screenwriters, producers and directors practice alterations of all kinds, in the hope of reaching the 1.4 billion consumers in China, according to Pen America, an American association for the defense of freedom of expression.

This ranges, she notes, from removing a Taiwanese flag from Tom Cruise's jacket in "Top Gun: Maverick" to erasing China as a source of a zombie virus in the movie "World War Z" ", released in 2013.

It is also a question of avoiding certain sensitive subjects, such as Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Xinjiang, and not showing characters from the LGBTQ community.

"Appeasing the Chinese government and their censors has become a way of doing business like any other," the report said.

Beijing has one of the most repressive censorship systems in the world within the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda department, which decides whether a foreign film can gain access to the local market.

Only a handful of foreign films are shown each year in China, which will soon be the world's largest film market.

American blockbusters like "Avengers: Endgame" or "Spider-Man: Far From Home" have made more receipts in China than in the United States.

"The Chinese Communist Party actually has a major influence on whether a Hollywood movie is profitable or not - and studio executives know that," says Pen America.

This is the reason why a former Disney boss, Michael Eisner, apologized to Beijing after the ban on the territory of Martin Scorsese's film Kundun, released in 1997, which deals with the life of the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibet in exile.

In Hollywood, some people "voluntarily appropriate these restrictions, without being asked", and others invite the Chinese censors on the sets, further denounces the report.

"If you are presenting a project that is openly critical," there is a fear that "you or your company will be openly blacklisted," said one producer.

"Hollywood's approach of giving in to Chinese dictates is creating a standard for the rest of the world," warns Pen America, warning of "a new normal" in countries proud of their freedom of expression.

© 2020 AFP