On June 24,2025, the "Thousand Sails Going Global: Legal Escort Forum for Film and Cultural Enterprises Going Global" was grandly held under the guidance of the Lujiazui Administration Bureau of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Management Committee, organized by the Legal Affairs Committee of the China Television Drama Production Industry Association, and co-organized by the Shanghai Pudong New Area Enterprise Going Global Comprehensive Service Center, Lujiazui International Accounting Center, Shanghai Tianyuge Law Firm, and the Italian Deenrui Law Firm. Elites and experts from guiding units, industry associations, film and television enterprises, and legal circles gathered to conduct in-depth discussions on the legal pain points of film and television going global, international compliance paths, and the globalization of the industry. The forum aimed to build a "government-enterprise-law" collaborative ecosystem for the globalization of Chinas film and cultural industries and tly establish a legal safeguard for cross-border development.
Policy guidance: From the forefront of Pudong to the strategic height of cultural export
Wang Yue, Executive General Manager of Shanghai Pudong New Area Enterprise Going Global Comprehensive Service Center, delivered a keynote speech. She highlighted that as Chinas first non-profit organization of its kind dedicated to overseas expansion, the center collaborates with 11 board member institutions and over 60 strategic partners, operating more than 270 overseas service stations across Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and other regions. These stations provide end-to-end services for global enterprises, covering everything from initial market research and business inspections to post-establishment project coordination, investment consulting, ongoing operational support, and risk early warning. With numerous film and cultural enterprises in attendance today, the center will fully support these industries international expansion efforts.
Yang Zi, Director of the Legal Affairs Committee of the China Television Drama Production Industry Association, analyzed the new landscape of film and television exports from a holistic industry perspective. He mentioned that the association has always actively fulfilled its duties in industry services and international exchanges, with particular emphasis on the critical role of law in the export process. Against the back of globalization and the reshaping of geopolitical patterns, the film and television cultural industry faces a situation opportunities and challenges coexist. The association hopes to integrate resources through this forum to provide enterprises with full-process legal support.
Industrial practice: decoding the win-win mechanism of international cooperation for enterprises going overseas
Ms.Song Xi, Vice President and Chief Legal Counsel of New Classics Media Group Co., Ltd. (a subsidiary of China Literature Group), delivered a keynote speech titled "Legal Safeguards and Win-Win Mechanisms in International Film and Television Cooperation." She shared practical insights from New Classics three core business areas: overseas distribution, IP adaptation, and international co-productions. Building on her experience with the film "Hitmans Holiday," she demonstrated how collaborative projects can achieve mutual benefits. The session concluded with strategic discussions on addressing legal disparities, cultural conflicts, and intellectual property protection in global partnerships. Ms.Song emphasized the critical importance of implementing full-process compliance management, conducting cultural value assessments, and strengthening IP safeguards to ensure successful international collaborations.
Legal Insight: Domestic and international experts map the risks of going global
Dr. Shen Honggang, Secretary-General of the Legal Affairs Committee of the China Television Drama Production Industry Association, delivered a speech titled "The Current Status and Hot Issues of Chinas TV Drama Industry Development." Starting from the analysis of trends and characteristics revealed by industry data changes from 2019 to 2024, he used data to reveal the transformation trends of the industry in recent years. In 2024,593 domestic TV dramas and 2,653 micro-dramas were registered, highlighting the significant disparity in their development over the past five years. In recent years, the overseas expansion of "short content" has become a new hotspot, but only 37.25% of companies achieved overseas revenue exceeding 1%. He pointed out that issues such as piracy losses, cultural discount effects, and streaming media competition faced by overseas film and television cultural enterprises urgently require effective solutions, and proposed targeted suggestions.
Jiang Yurong, a senior partner at Beijing Dacheng Law Offices, focused on "Key Outlines of Overseas Cooperation for Film and Television Cultural Projects," emphasizing that lawyers should think in sync with clients strategy makers and provide practical legal support for client strategies. Using detailed data, he introduced the largest single market for Chinas film and television cultural works—America—and analyzed the U.S. markets position in cultural service trade through figures such as Chinas $900 million North American box office revenue in 2024 and short drama export earnings of 5.328 billion yuan. The Sino-U.S. tariff conflict was used to highlight dynamic risks in overseas investment, reminding enterprises to pay attention to the potential risks of content import and export in Sino-U.S. tariff negotiations. Through vivid cases the "Macau 2049" project served by Jiangs team, he illustrated how enterprises should establish legal, financial, and tax support structures for overseas expansion. He also advised enterprises to monitor the potential impacts of Sino-U.S. tariff negotiations on content import and export.
Tong Ling, Senior Partner at Shanghai Tianyuge Law Firm, traced the evolution of cultural exports through four decades of film and TV adaptations, from *The Man from Atlantis* in 1980 to Netflixs *The Three-Body Problem*. "Every cultural exchange involves legal battles," she noted. "When *The Exiled* pioneered revenue-sharing models, we mastered box office distribution clauses. When *Empresses in the Palace* faced 11-minute edits overseas, we prioritized adaptation rights agreements." She highlighted four legal red flags: cultural sovereignty disputes, digital tax barriers, IP plagiarism traps, and derivative development gaps, urging companies to establish "geopolitical legal early warning systems."
Xie Jun, senior consultant lawyer at the Shanghai representative office of Italys Deenrui Law Firm, presented an international perspective on "Opportunities and Challenges for Chinese Film and Television Cultural Enterprises in Going Global under the Reconfiguration of Geopolitics," focusing on the EU investment review process and the Italian "Golden Power" case to analyze institutional barriers. He advised enterprises investing in Europe to pay special attention to cultural integration, labor management, talent retention, and intellectual property protection.
Sun Qihui, Director of the Overseas Legal Department at Shanghai Tianyuge Law Firm, proposed four strategies to break through the "hidden reefs" in the overseas expansion of Chinese films and TV shows during her speech titled "The Challenge Across Mountains and Seas: The Advanced Path of Copyright Protection for Chinese Film and TV Going Global": First, pre-expansion planning, clarifying copyright ownership during the preparatory stage, signing rigorous contracts, and ensuring complete authorization from original authors for adapted works; Second, leveraging international rules and agreements, utilizing international conventions and bilateral/multilateral agreements to protect rights; Third, adopting technology, such as blockchain evidence storage and video recognition to prevent infringement; Fourth, actively pursuing litigation to solidify evidence in case of infringement, as cross-border rights protection may be challenging but can help minimize losses and deter infringers.
Breakthrough innovation: the way forward for copyright protection and the launch of a community
At the forum, the Film and Television Silk Road Legal Escort Community was officially launched. This community integrates authoritative legal service institutions and think tank resources to provide full-chain support in contracts, intellectual property, compliance review and dispute resolution, while also promoting creative exchanges and market collaboration among members.
This forum brought together industry leaders and experts to conduct in-depth discussions on core pathways and legal safeguards for film and television cultural enterprises global expansion. The event provided robust intellectual support and practical guidance for the industrys "setting sail overseas" initiative. Participants unanimously agreed that the forums communication platform not only systematically mapped legal risk profiles in internationalization processes but also developed forward-looking and actionable solution frameworks. These achievements will effectively help premium cultural content overcome the "discount effect" in cross-cultural communication, facilitating the industrys value evolution from "physical expansion" to "cultural integration." This strategic leap will enable global enterprises to transition from "going out" to "going in" in international markets.
