Chinese Movie Piracy Fueled by Government Controls

According to a December 3, 2004 report from Reuters, MPA Regional Director Michael "Ellis said China's 95 percent piracy rate in 2003, up from 88 percent two years earlier, was not so much a product of its lack of suppression of the illegal activity as from its policy of restricting the number of foreign movies screened. 'China only allows 20 foreign films to be shown publicly annually in the country, and last year 15 of them were Hollywood movies,' he said."