Why China Banned Marvel

Spider-Man No Way Home was banned in China because of this scene. Can you guess why? If you guessed the Statue of Liberty, you'd be correct. The Chinese government demanded Sony Pictures to digitally remove the statue or remove the scenes. It would have been too difficult to remove the Statue of Liberty and removing the scene would have ruined the whole movie. So, in response, Sony rejected their request. The Chinese government in response asked if the icon of American freedom could be minimized by cutting other key shots and by darkening the lighting of the statue, which, unsurprisingly, Sony rejected. Recently, China officially banned Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The reason for the ban of this movie is this scene. Can you guess why? The movie had outraged the Chinese Communist Party by including a brief shot of a newspaper rack owned by the Epoch Times, which is very critical of the party. It was banned even with it being present for a split of a second. China has one of the most restrictive media environments in the world. The Communist Party of China only allows 34 foreign films to be released per year. Less than a third of the films released in China in 2021 were actual new-release 2021 films.