China’s National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) announced on Monday that the state-run China Central Television (CCTV) has overseen the deletion of some 8,000 AI-altered videos from online platforms.
The videos were censored because they “distort, parody, or vulgarize classic Chinese films and television dramas and animated works.”
China’s state-run Global Times unironically relayed the triumphant announcement by two organs of the oppressive Communist government congratulating each other for doing a great job at censorship:
The NRTA has instructed major online audiovisual platforms to further strengthen their primary responsibility, enhance routine monitoring and screening efforts, and focus on removing non-compliant AI-altered videos that alter or distort classic film and television works based on the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, historical themes, revolutionary themes, and exemplary heroic figures.
Platforms have also been directed to remove various forms of disturbing or inappropriate animated content to continuously foster a healthy online audiovisual environment, CCTV reported.
According to the NRTA, the campaign specifically targets three categories of non-compliant videos including the AI-altered content that seriously distorts the original spirit and character portrayals of the source material, content that promotes graphic violence or vulgarity, and content that misappropriates or alters Chinese cultural elements in ways that lead to distorted historical understanding.
The Global Times gave the example of Lin Daiyu, the main character from an 18th-century romance novel called Dream of the Red Chamber, being inappropriately portrayed as a “violent combat character.”
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That sounds hilarious, because Lin Daiyu is akin to a delicate Chinese distaff version of Hamlet. In the AI-modified videos, she solves her problems by using her fists to beat the hell out of her courtly rivals. Apparently, the Chinese Communist Party has less of a sense of humor about its classical literature than Westerners do about the Bard.
Also beyond the pale, according to the Global Times, is “placing characters from Empresses in the Palace into modern gunfight scenarios, thereby completely overturning the public’s basic understanding of such figures.”
That also sounds like a lot of fun, as “Empresses in the Palace” was a prestigious period drama about concubines in the Imperial harem in the early 18th Century. Apparently, an unacceptable number of Internet clowns thought it would be improved by giving the ladies an assortment of modern firearms and letting them pump the court full of lead. One can see why that particular fantasy might be unsettling for the new mandarins of Communist China.
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According to reports from late 2024, when the censorship campaign against AI videos was launched, the NRTA felt these comical AI edits of classic films and television series have “damaged the public’s recognition of traditional culture, betrayed the spirit of these classics, and might infringe on intellectual property rights.”
The NRTA ominously warned short video platforms that they needed to “strengthen review of all A.I.-generated content” and “conduct self-examination” if they wished to avoid official consequences. Strict regulations to that effect were published in March 2025.
Social media platforms got the message and quickly began labeling or deleting AI-generated text and video. Regulators said they were especially concerned about convincing AI representations of human beings. Evidently the Chinese government decided that even with labeling, the public might be confused by mockeries of cherished legends.