Death By China

LITTLE ROCK — Death By China is a scary movie, one that warns us from the outset that we should be careful to distinguish between the “good and hardworking people of China” and “their repressive government.” (Something anyone who has seen Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry probably already understands.)

Peter Navarro effectively paints the Chinese government as an ongoing criminal enterprise in his film, which asserts that the Chinese government encourages piracy and counterfeiting of everything from golf clubs and DVDs to high-end technology, effectively stealing American intellectual property while ignoring global standards of workplace safety and environmental hygiene. They take our ideas and undercut our prices, selling us inferior products at prices that are too low to resist while availing themselves of a work force that’s essentially enslaved.

While some might have a little problem with the film’s melodramatic tone and at times bombastic rhetoric - sonorously delivered by Martin Sheen and accompanied by graphics depicting metaphoric bombs and guns directed at the U.S. - there’s not much doubt that the film addresses a real problem. Since China was admitted to the World Trade Organization in 2001 - a move that was supposed to open up what is potentially the world’s largest market to American exports - more than 50,000 U.S. factories have closed, and multinational corporations such as Apple, Boeing, Caterpillar and G.E. have moved most of their manufacturing operations to China, lending tacit support to the Chinese government’s policies.

The real problem, the film suggests, isn’t so much the opportunistic Chinese as the ethically challenged heads of these international corporations - many headquartered in the United States - who are willing to trade long-range stability (and American jobs) for short-term profits. And don’t forget those in the U.S. government - in both parties - who oppose trade reform with China because they’re dependent on their corporate masters for campaign contributions.

The result is an America where very little is actually made - and crippling foreign debt. (I told you it was a horror film.)

Yet while the issue Death By China limns is a very real one, the film itself is unabashed agitative propaganda in the style of Michael Moore. It’s selective in its facts, and it doesn’t really engage its putative audience as adults, opting instead for cutesy graphics. You won’t hear the other side because the filmmakers are more interested in driving traffic to the website that appears at the film’s end than worrying with the subtleties of the program.

And that’s all right - it’s incumbent on the moviegoer to think critically. And considering Death By China is (like The Invisible War) more advocacy than journalism, it’s hardly surprising the filmmakers don’t seek to undermine the case they mean to present.

They could have done it more artfully, but I suspect they’ve made a very effective little movie.

Death By China 80 Cast: Documentary Director: Peter Navarro Rating: Not rated, nothing offensive Running time: 79 minutes