Protecting Shanghai’s reputation

The Shanghai International Film Festival starts on June 11. Ahead of the festival, the city is organizing a crack down on pirate DVDs.

An Associated Press report about the crackdown gives a crystal clear picture of the real reasons behind China’s occasional anti-piracy actions:

“To crack down against the pirate DVDs is our job and duty,” Lan Yiming, deputy head of Shanghai’s culture inspection bureau, said in a telephone interview.

“We want to create a good cultural environment for the international film festival and give guests from home and abroad a good impression,” he said…

…Lan said the anti-piracy sweep also aims to prevent the embarrassment of actors and film professionals attending the festival seeing pirated versions of their films for sale. (Emphasis added.)

It’s not that piracy is actually wrong or anything…