An anonymous Hollywood executive was quoted by LA Times writer Bruce Wallace saying, "People have been waiting for China to open up since Marco Polo."  "It is wrong...to assume that just because the Communist Party is slowly relaxing its grip over its markets that China will someday become an open media market. 'People forget...It's not just a Communist Party thing. It's a Chinese cultural thing.'" 

In fact, if one looks at precedent, China will never buy from you.  They'll copy your IP and sell it to their own markets. 

In the same article Wallace goes on to say: "Rupert Murdoch, who in early 2004 gave a speech proclaiming that 'the potential for China to become a new global center for media and entertainment is slowly becoming more real.' But, by last September, one month after Beijing's decision to re-tighten regulatory controls on foreign media, Murdoch was publicly lamenting that News Corp.'s China business had hit a 'brick wall.' When it came to foreign media, he complained, China's political leadership was "quite paranoid about what gets through."

All this reminds me how television (and entertainment) is about so much more than television (and entertainment). And, re-emphasizes my point that we often undervalue and do not exploit one of America's great assets - its global economic dominance in entertainment and media.

Simon Cowell once remarked to Larry King when asked about the prohibition of "American Idol" like shows in China.  Says Cowell:

"Well, because it's a democracy, isn't it? You know, I mean, it's the public voting. So you can understand why they're getting slightly nervous about it. Because it wasn't our show in China, it was the laughing cow, so-and-so, so-and-so competition. And the public got to vote. And suddenly there were demos, and it was democracy. And I think the government went, we don't want this. So then they put out a stupid comment like that. You know? It's that we must control the public. Crazy."