Disney Bows to China and Bashes America

Disney has removed an episode of The Simpsons cartoon that refers to “forced labor camps” in China from its streaming platform in Hong Kong, the Financial Times reported on February 7. The episode features one of the characters taking a virtual bike ride on the Great Wall of China when the instructor said, “Behold the wonders of China: Bitcoin mines, forced labor camps where children make smartphones.”

Show me the money: This was likely a reference to the forced labor camps in Xinjiang where Uyghur Muslims are held in modern-day concentration camps. According to Kenny Ng, associate professor at the Academy of Film at Hong Kong Baptist University, Disney’s pro-China censorship is a “strategic” decision to prevent offending China and “the company’s ties, current and future, in mainland China.”

Disney has made such decisions before.

• In 2021, it removed another episode of The Simpsons that featured a visit to Tiananmen Square and referenced Chairman Mao Zedong’s massacre of 50 million people.
• In order to stream the original Mulan movie in China, Disney bought the foreign distribution rights to two Chinese films, hired a Chinese performance group for Mulan’s European release, and built Shanghai’s Disneyland.
• Disney filmed parts of of the Mulan remake in parts of Xinjiang and gave “special thanks” to the Publicity Department of cpc (Communist Party of China) Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Committee in the film credits.
• Disney and other Hollywood companies engage in rigorous self-censorship by avoiding references to Taiwan, Tibet and other oppressed minorities, while backing China’s claims to the South China Sea.

Afraid of losing the massive Chinese market, Disney kowtows to the genocidal and authoritarian Chinese Communist Party. But it is happy to attack America and teach children to hate its founding.

Attacking America: Disney recently rebooted a children’s show, titled The Proud Family, that is all-in on the 1619 Project. One of its episodes features talks about how “slaves built this country” and “descendants of slaves continue to build it.” Abraham Lincoln didn’t really free the slaves, it says, because “only we can free ourselves” and “emancipation is not freedom.”

The contrast between Disney’s attitudes toward China and America says all you need to know about its moral integrity. But that won’t stop it from coming for your children. It is more important than ever to protect our children and be wary of what they watch and are exposed to.

Learn more: Read our article “Disney and the Fight for Our Children.”