Investors realise Trump’s pause was not the salvation it appeared

Apr 11th 2025

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Hong Kong and Singapore

SO FAR THIS year China has imported ten American films, including the zany “A Minecraft Movie”. But there is a limit to how much American drama anyone can stand. After President Donald Trump’s latest plot-twist—lowering the “reciprocal” tariff on most countries to 10%, while raising it on China to 125%—the China Film Administration stepped in. It said it would cut the number of Hollywood productions screened in the mainland. After all, Mr Trump’s tariffs would diminish the Chinese audience’s “favourable perception of American films”, it said.