China has become the worlds’ largest and most important movie market and Hollywood is anxious to cash in. Yet heavy-handed censorship from Chinese authorities reveals a harsh truth: the ideology promulgated by the Chinese Communist Party subverts bedrock Western ideals, including the rule of law, respect for private property and, above all, freedom of expression. Martha Bayles, writing in The Atlantic, scrutinizes the long arm of Chinese censorship and American filmmakers’ craven submission in the pursuit of profits. What ultimately is at stake, writes Bayles, is nothing less than artistic freedom.
Yay Brexit!
Brendan O’Neill in Spiked enthuses that Brexit is superior to just about anything else in the world. “There should be street parties” on the 10th anniversary of the popular vote to withdraw from the EU, he writes. “Let the bells peal for that momentous day when in our millions we said No to globalism.” The continuing surfeit of saboteurs and naysayers among Britain’s “idiot elites”, O’Neill snorts, are gripped by Brexit Derangement Syndrome.
