Hollywood Has $9 Billion Reasons to Not Blame China for the Coronavirus Pandemic

Trump-bashing Hollywood figures, from film stars to studio executives, have been conspicuously silent when it comes to China as evidence mounts that Chinese dictators sought to hide the true gravity of the coronavirus outbreak and silence doctors who tried to speak out.

Take Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista. He’s attacked President Donald Trump for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. As one of Hollywood’s most prominent anti-Trump voices, Bautista has fired off tweets insulting the commander in chief’s daily press briefings and recently called quarantine protestors “morons” for seeking to re-open state economies.

But the actor has been conspicuously silent when it comes to China — and he along with the rest of the entertainment industry have billions of reasons to stay quiet as more evidence points to actions that China’s dictators sought to hide the true gravity of the coronavirus outbreak and silencing doctors who tried to speak out.

Bautista isn’t the only Marvel actor to attack President Trump over the coronavirus. Captain America star Chris Evans accused the president of running off the stage during a recent press conference without answering questions. “America wants answers,” the actor tweeted in March. But just like his Avengers co-star, Evans has refrained from criticizing China over the pandemic.

As Hollywood continues to shift to ever-more expensive tentpole movie releases, the major studios are relying on Chinese moviegoers to turn a profit. But to gain access to the world’s second largest movie market, they have to first play nice with China’s film officials who control which foreign titles get to play in the country’s more than 60,000 cinemas.

Movie stars looking to find work in Hollywood need only glance at the figures to know that staying quiet about China is good for their careers and their coffers. The Chinese box office has skyrocketed in the past ten years. Officials claim that Chinese cinemas brought in $9.2 billion last year, compared to...

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