SHANGHAI: Hollywood's new top lobbyist avoided tough issues Monday in his first speech in China, one of the industry's most coveted yet most inaccessible markets, instead lauding Beijing's progress in combating piracy and launching foreign co-productions. Former US Sen. Chris Dodd is visiting China for the first time since taking over in March as chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America. However, in his first speech at the Shanghai International Film Festival, Dodd didn't mention the issues that have frustrated Hollywood studios operating in China for years: a de facto quota of 20 foreign blockbusters a year and the inability to distribute their own movies in the country. Dodd took a diplomatic approach, heaping praise on the tremendous strides the Chinese film industry has made in domestic productions and working with foreign studios. “In the last 10 years, we have seen growth and development that allows me to say here this morning that the Chinese film industry has fully matured. So too has the relationship between the American film industry and Chinese filmmakers, Chinese audiences and even the Chinese government,” he said. Dodd paid tribute to recent Chinese productions, naming the Jiang Wen political satire “Let the Bullets Fly,” the Tsui Hark fantasy epic “Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame” and Chinese actress-director Xu Jinglei's romantic comedy “Go Lala Go!” “All the ingredients are there for China's film industry to become a major, major, major player on the world stage, just as China has always been a major player on the world cultural stage,” he said. The former senator also noted recent high-profile Hollywood-China co-productions like “The Forbidden Kingdom,” which co-starred Jackie Chan and Jet Li, “The Karate Kid” remake starring Chan and Jaden Smith, and “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” which paired Li and Brendan Fraser.
