China caps film star pay, citing "money worship" and fake contracts - Sensationalist Headlines

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/28/china-caps-film-star-pay-citing-money-worship-and-fake-contracts Chinese authorities are capping the salaries of celebrities, blaming the entertainment industry for encouraging “money worship” and “distorting social values”. The salaries of on-screen performers should be capped at 40% of the total production costs, according to a joint notice from five government agencies including China’s tax authority, the television and film regulator, and the propaganda department. Leading actors should receive no more than 70% of total wages for the cast, according to the announcement, published in Xinhua. The directive – the same as guidelines released last year by the China Alliance of Radio Film and Television – comes after a series of Chinese celebrities were accused of signing fake contracts to evade taxes. In May a well-connected Chinese TV presenter, Cui Yongyuan, posted photos of contracts believed to belong to Fan Bingbing, one of the country’s highest paid actors. The contracts, o ne for $1.56m and another for $7.8m, were meant to be an illustration of “yin-yang contracts”, a common method of tax evasion in which only the smaller contract is reported to authorities. Fan has denied any wrongdoing while Cui has accused other celebrities of the same behaviour. Tax authorities in Jiangsu province, where Fan runs a film studio, said this month they were investigating tax evasion by “certain film and television professionals as alleged in online discussions”. Wednesday’s directive criticised the use of yin-yang contracts, saying they damage not only the quality of the country’s film industry but encourage China’s youth to “blindly chase stars”. The notice said the industry should put social benefits foremost: “Box office ratings and click-through rates should be firmly opposed.” Chinese regulators have been working on reining in the entertainment and film industry, especially online content. Chinese citizens may support the restrictions, as many have grown critical of the exorbitant salaries of the country’s stars. “Society has given them too much and look at what they give back,” one Weibo user wrote in response to news of the salary caps. Others were supportive but sceptical of any real change: “Thunder sounds loud while the raindrops are small. Other departments have made such announcements before.” Chinese propaganda authorities are wary of too much debate. A directive issued to Chinese news organisations earlier this month said: “Content related to tax issues involving people in the film and television industry and ‘yin-yang contracts’ should be held back.”

Anytime someone (Xi Jinping) tells you china will be the country that will lead the world in the 21st century, just remember that they are still a Communist kleptocracy which is regressing back into the 1970s under their current dictator

Also the fact that they have a social credit system that enforces the will of the state over individuality: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System Putting a cap on pay is a good move but it's not without sinister intentions: Chinese authorities are capping the salaries of celebrities, blaming the entertainment industry for encouraging “money worship” and “distorting social values”

How about Xi cap his powers next?

I disagree; actors don't work for the government, so I don't think the government should have any authority over how much an actor makes. If 1 billion chinese people each want to pay $10 to go see a movie and the studio wants to give 25% of that to the actor, why should the government have any say in that?

It's just a matter of time before they hit a bump, their people rise up or their property bubble bursts.

Hah. Peasant revolts only work when the army lets it work.

People have been saying that for about 3000 years. Any day now.

Now I see what Trump's doing, he wants to beat China in the time travel wars by going even further back to the 1940s. Genius.

Hopefully, they collapse before they have the chance to do so, hard

more importantly, pretty much the entire chinese communist party is made up of billionares and millionares who got rich thanks to government conpanies

a picture into the world of the future

This needs to happen in the west

This would be a good thing if there was any guarantee that the government would be serving the people and giving everyone, even the government officials, an equally good life.

I doubt Xi has any good intentions behind this, but I'm personally not entirely against the idea of a paycap for actors

is it going to actually be a boot stamping on a human face forever?

This is an interesting idea, but should only be handled by the industry, never the government.