Tencent Faces $1.5 Billion Fine and Chinese Government Probe in Antitrust Crackdown

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChina’s largest company, the social media, games and entertainment giant Tencent achieved net profits of RMB47.7 billion ($7.39 billion) in the first three months of the year. That was an increase of 65% on the comparable period last year when coronavirus was at its peak in China.

BEIJING -- Israel’s Embassy in China is protesting what it describes as “blatant anti-Semitism” on a program run by the overseas channel of state broadcaster CCTV discussing the ongoing violence in Gaza and elsewhere.In a tweet, the embassy said “we have hoped that the times of the ‘Jew’s controlling the world’ conspiracy theories were over, unfortunately anti-Semitism has shown its ugly face again.”“We are appalled to see blatant anti-Semitism expressed in an official Chinese media outlet," the

Netflix and its popular Thai drama “Girl from Nowhere.”Comments online Wednesday complained the series’ Facebook page showed the flags of Taiwan, the island democracy claimed by the ruling Communist Party as part of its territory, and of Hong Kong, where the party is trying to crush pro-democracy activism.Netflix joins a growing list of foreign retailers, airlines, hotels and other companies that have been attacked online in China over Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, human rights and other politically

EXCLUSIVE: Brightburn producer The H Collective is to adapt the ancient Chinese book of myths and legends The Classic of Mountains and Seas into a feature, with a view to creating a film and TV universe inspired by the text.

Rebecca Davis editorSony Music Entertainment (SME) said Monday that it has signed both a new direct China digital distribution deal with NetEase Cloud Music and a multi-year extension of its existing agreement with Tencent Music Entertainment (TME).Sony’s NetEase deal is the latest to shift power away from TME in China’s streaming industry and make the space slightly more competitive. It comes amidst a government antitrust probe of TME and its parent company Tencent Group.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Chinese government’s increasing regulation of the tech sector is a current concern for China’s major internet and online entertainment companies. But the latest quarterly results announcement for China’s biggest digital music company, Tencent Music Entertainment pointed to business as usual, at least for the moment.First quarter revenues, spanning the January to March 2021 period, at Tencent Music grew by 26% year on year.

Bill Gates and Melinda Gates recently announced they will be divorcing after 27 years of marriage. There have been several speculations making the rounds relating to reasons for the high-profile divorce.

The Bill and Melinda Gates divorce goes wilder and deeper by the day as the world tries to find its root cause. The latest development in the high-profile separation was the involvement of Bill Gates’s 36-year-old Chinese interpreter called Zhe Shelly Wang.

Refresh for latest…: Yet another international box office frame was led by Chinese movies in their home market as local May Day holdovers continued play coming off a record holiday session. While a handful of studio titles are doing business in other pockets of the world, we are in something of a holding pattern until majors like the UK and France begin opening in the coming weeks, and as Universal’s F9 is expected to rev up overseas turnstiles for Hollywood starting on May 19.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefAward-winning Chinese sci-fi novel “Folding Beijing” will move into production as a movie later this year, following a green light from mainland China studio Wanda Film.The film, titled “Folding City” is to be helmed by Josh Kim, the Korean-American director who previously made a splash with adolescent drama “How to Win at Checkers (Every Time)”. The film was selected as Thailand’s Oscar contender in 2015.

Rebecca Davis editorThe organization Chinese in Entertainment, the non-profit behind the Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival (LACFF), is changing its name to remove the word “Chinese” after internal discussions about the political implications of the term.After some soul-searching, the team decided that the new name Sino Entertainment Association (SEA) would be better aligned with its goal of championing inclusivity and diversity.

Ten years after his last documentary, “I Wish I Knew” (screened in Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2011), acclaimed Chinese auteur Jia Zhang-Ke (“Ash Is Purest White,” “A Touch of Sin“) returns to non-fiction with “Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue,” the final panel in his trilogy about the arts in China. It follows Venice winners “Dong” (2006) and “Useless” (2007).