Netflix CEO Says No Progress In Entering China

[HardOCP News]

Netflix's Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings says that strict regulations in China are still blocking the streaming service from entering that country. Someone needs to tell China what they are missing out on.

Netflix Inc has made no progress in its plan to enter the potentially lucrative Chinese market as it needs to obtain a government license, its Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings said on Tuesday. The video streaming service is seeking to grow its subscriber base abroad to counter slowing growth in its home market of the United States.

 

[westrock2000]

Wonder if they would be allowed to watch Stranger Things in light of there no superstition/ghost rules. Since we don't know what the Upside Down is yet

 

[Armenius]

The only way Netflix is entering the Chinese market is if Netflix makes a Chinese-specific version of Netflix that bends to the will of the Chinese government. It is truly a market in which one must pay to play.

 

[Reimu]

They already have incumbent services such as Tudou and Youku. I hate to say it, but the notion that western MNC can just go into China and tap into that market of 1.3 billion is something that the Chinese are not interested to play ball with.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Couldn't possibly let a Western company distribute content within their borders.

What if that content didn't paint a universally flattering view of China 100% of the time?

At so point single party rule with end in China. It's only a matter of time. Single party rule never lasts.

When it does we will see the real economic threat from China. Until then their form of government is what keeps us on a relatively better foot economically

 

[verbatim81973]

Couldn't possibly let a Western company distribute content within their borders.

+1, this is true.

 

[Shintai]

They already have incumbent services such as Tudou and Youku. I hate to say it, but the notion that western MNC can just go into China and tap into that market of 1.3 billion is something that the Chinese are not interested to play ball with.

Exactly.

 

[Reimu]

Couldn't possibly let a Western company distribute content within their borders.

What if that content didn't paint a universally flattering view of China 100% of the time?

At so point single party rule with end in China. It's only a matter of time. Single party rule never lasts.

When it does we will see the real economic threat from China. Until then their form of government is what keeps us on a relatively better foot economically

I think a lot of people in the West fail to recognize that everything that China.Inc does is for make benefit the party. Even the very state itself exists insofar as that party allows. You can think of the Party membership as holding Imperium or to say the party holds the sovereignty in itself.
The party itself has vicious mafia-like turf wars, but the institution as a whole justifies itself as the necessary arrangement to serve the people (or in other words, it's for the people's own good that the mandate to govern is not divested to the public)

The idea that a highly capitalistic establishment operating this way is strangely foreign to a huge swath of MBAs, because most folks that I've seen don't approach economy in geopolitical terms.

The Chinese question becomes a case of wonder whether or not if you can somehow play to the interest of that cadre of 80 million strong and to the party's own private army. If you cannot, then you aren't welcomed to do business.

 

[westrock2000]

When it does we will see the real economic threat from China. Until then their form of government is what keeps us on a relatively better foot economically

In my opinion, the only reason we have been safe so far is because Chinese in general are not aggressive people when it comes to conquest and intervention. All it would take is one successful military operation and they would probably start to understand their potential. China is not India. I am more afraid of China then I am of Russia. Russia just wants to survive at this point, China has the potential to be number 1.

 

[Reimu]

In my opinion, the only reason we have been safe so far is because Chinese in general are not aggressive people when it comes to conquest and intervention. All it would take is one successful military operation and they would probably start to understand their potential. China is not India. I am more afraid of China then I am of Russia. Russia just wants to survive at this point, China has the potential to be number 1.

You do need to know a couple of things.

1. China's own internal factionalism from north-south regional dynamics have always been great. The strong 'central' hand in handing the redistribution of resources and human capital (which came about roughly by the reign of Justinian) is always battling against provincial power bases.
2. Chinese did learn significantly from Korean war, China-Vietnam war and any other conflict where they've watched the US indirectly. Having said that, do know that the PLA lost the crème de la crème of her veterans at Korea, and then to the Cultural Revolution. What you have now is a force that is a private army of the CPC that looks more to its domestic affairs than to actually project outside of the China Proper.
3. Sinosphere is very real, and I think of the Chinese maritime claims in the same breath as Japanese Co-prosperity sphere in the sheer expense of maritime jurisdiction that China's asking for. They essentially claim maritime area from anyone who as a Chinese vassal state in 1400s - 1800s.
4. China's never been able to sustain a maritime focus in its history. It always end up looking North, particularly at Liaodong peninsula (land corridor from Beijing-Pyongyang-Manchuria-Seoul since about late 1500s onward. The last time that the Chinese did expand outward across the ocean during early 1400s was out of political legitimacy, not out of military needs.


(yeah, I am not real popular when I run into Chinese, be they the PRC folks or first gen, or even the 2nd gen kids)

Edit: I know. Normally those in the west don't look at skeletons that old in the closet, but Asian affairs is one where the past beef of preceding regimes get carry on forward.

 

[ccmfreak2]

In my opinion, the only reason we have been safe so far is because Chinese in general are not aggressive people when it comes to conquest and intervention. All it would take is one successful military operation and they would probably start to understand their potential. China is not India. I am more afraid of China then I am of Russia. Russia just wants to survive at this point, China has the potential to be number 1.

I suppose technically they are "not aggressive" in the same way that bully comes up to you and takes all your stuff without saying a word or hitting you is "not aggressive." China simply takes what it wants and whines about it when people protest. Whether you're talking about the more recent Japanese Island, or the Spratly Islands, or the Natuna Islands, or the classic Tibetan territory, or the various mountain regions and points with almost all of it's neighbors.... No China doesn't exercise massive military force. Instead it simply claims it has rights and sees who actually challenges those claims.

 

[Reimu]

I suppose technically they are "not aggressive" in the same way that bully comes up to you and takes all your stuff without saying a word or hitting you is "not aggressive." China simply takes what it wants and whines about it when people protest. Whether you're talking about the more recent Japanese Island, or the Spratly Islands, or the Natuna Islands, or the classic Tibetan territory, or the various mountain regions and points with almost all of it's neighbors.... No China doesn't exercise massive military force. Instead it simply claims it has rights and sees who actually challenges those claims.

Granted, who's been the greasing the palms of Southeast Asia as of late?

Let me put it this way. The Chinese are not byproducts of Westphalian nation-states, and the citizenry see China more aligned in an empire construct even now, and they really don't ever think of themselves as the aggressor in any way. For them, they don't see the contradictions in asserting glories of historical imperial regimes that aren't even theirs to claim, and they are actually flabbergasted when they were presented with how that they are intruding on others' sovereignty.

To further complicate issues, they held that region's on Chinese handouts.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

In my opinion, the only reason we have been safe so far is because Chinese in general are not aggressive people when it comes to conquest and intervention. All it would take is one successful military operation and they would probably start to understand their potential. China is not India. I am more afraid of China then I am of Russia. Russia just wants to survive at this point, China has the potential to be number 1.

Well, I wasn't talking militarily. I was talking economically. If the most populous nation on earth winds up with political freedom and a free economy, it will compete with us much more effectively than it does today.

I disagree a bit here. China today is full of nationalistic fervor. The only thing stopping them from being more belligerent is their relatively limited military capability compared to us. Look at their expansionism in the south china sea... That is the type of thing they are willing to do when playing with their weaker neighbors.

I wouldn't say Russia "just wants to survive at this point". Putin also has a strain of nationalistic fervor ripping through his country, which he has to play to, which we have seen evidence of in the whole Georgia/South Ossetia conflict, the annexation of Crimea, what's going on in the Ukraine, their hostile acts against including incursions and kidnappings across the border into the Baltic states (some of which are even Nato members) assassinations of political foes and journalists even well outside their borders, and their taking active military roles in defending war criminals like Assad in Syria. etc. etc.

A few years ago I would have agreed. Russia is no longer a threat. They may even have a potential for being a future friend and aid to global stability, but in the last 15 years Russia has gone off the deep end, and become antagonistic again. I don't think we have to worry about Russia TOO much. While they are no longer the crumbling ex-soviet mess they were after the wall fell, they are also no longer the military threat they were during the Soviet years. Putin wants to rattle sabers a bit to gain nationalistic support at home, but he knows he can't survive a direct armed conflict with the west, and he is not stupid. We shouldn't be TOO worried, but we also shouldn't ignore them completely.

 

[Reimu]

Well, I wasn't talking militarily. I was talking economically. If the most populous nation on earth winds up with political freedom and a free economy, it will compete with us much more effectively than it does today.

I disagree a bit here. China today is full of nationalistic fervor. The only thing stopping them from being more belligerent is their relatively limited military capability compared to us. Look at their expansionism in the south china sea... That is the type of thing they are willing to do when playing with their weaker neighbors.

The no.1 obstacle for PRC is that it has not gotten rid of the same problem it had even in Imperial era, being that the state simply does not guarantee the well being of person, assets and personal properties. Without this, the Chinese cannot help but to engage in capital flight. Now, the Chinese isn't blind to this themselves. The struggle with greater legal representation and better governmental transparency/accountability had been there in 2000s, but the political factional power play that's been going on in Xi Jinping's administration has really rolled back on those initiatives.

I do not think that USA is staring into an abyss as such.

 

[ccmfreak2]

Couldn't possibly let a Western company distribute content within their borders.

What if that content didn't paint a universally flattering view of China 100% of the time?

At so point single party rule with end in China. It's only a matter of time. Single party rule never lasts.

When it does we will see the real economic threat from China. Until then their form of government is what keeps us on a relatively better foot economically

It's this "unflattering view" that caused Disney's Mulan to be banned from China for so many years. They so much of their own culture and history in the Cultural Revolution, they couldn't tell the dress and makeup was actually a Chinese Hanfu instead of the assumed Japanese Kimono, which was based off the Hanfu.

Anyway, yeah they are quite sensitive, which makes for some interesting cultural differences given the wide stretching implications this difference creates.

 

[Sonicks]

Netflix and chill would produce too many babies in an already overpopulated country, lol.

 

[ccmfreak2]

Granted, who's been the greasing the palms of Southeast Asia as of late?

Let me put it this way. The Chinese are not byproducts of Westphalian nation-states, and the citizenry see China more aligned in an empire construct even now, and they really don't ever think of themselves as the aggressor in any way. For them, they don't see the contradictions in asserting glories of historical imperial regimes that aren't even theirs to claim, and they are actually flabbergasted when they were presented with how that they are intruding on others' sovereignty.

To further complicate issues, they held that region's on Chinese handouts.

Oh, you're absolutely right - the citizenry don't think of themselves as aggressors in the slightest. If you try to challenge them on any of these issues, and they make claims like, "Well, that land has always been China's," or, "It use to be China, so it's only right it comes back to us." Then you bring up Tibet, and they just shrug off the entire conversation. But, what the people feel and what the government does are often very different, as we in the West with multi-party systems experience quite often.

 

[Reimu]

It's this "unflattering view" that caused Disney's Mulan to be banned from China for so many years. They so much of their own culture and history in the Cultural Revolution, they couldn't tell the dress and makeup was actually a Chinese Hanfu instead of the assumed Japanese Kimono, which was based off the Hanfu.

Anyway, yeah they are quite sensitive, which makes for some interesting cultural differences given the wide stretching implications this difference creates.

I remember that Hanfu fiasco.That incident made me realize that the Chinese really have changed their own self definition and "New China" is "The China".

Netflix and chill would produce too many babies in an already overpopulated country, lol.

China is not overpopulated in the same way that say India subcontinent is. Think of Canada and how that most Canadian live within 300 mile of US. Chinese hive cities are essentially by the coast, central plain and by the major rivers.

 

[Reimu]

Oh, you're absolutely right - the citizenry don't think of themselves as aggressors in the slightest. If you try to challenge them on any of these issues, and they make claims like, "Well, that land has always been China's," or, "It use to be China, so it's only right it comes back to us." Then you bring up Tibet, and they just shrug off the entire conversation. But, what the people feel and what the government does are often very different, as we in the West with multi-party systems experience quite often.

The funny thing that I've found is that the Chinese understand the concept of "Republicanism" better than the west in that they don't associate the idea of government for the people as democratic. In fact, The Chinese don't blur the line of "for the people" with "democracy". To them, the mandate of governance is not from the people.

 

[Xrave]

Beijing Gehua CATV and chill?