From made in China to created in China

This article provides a macro-perspective on China's repositioning in the global and regional cultural economy, and in doing so questions the structural impact of past practices on future export aspirations. Whereas most accounts of China's media are predicated on top-down control models, the article proposes a media development framework appropriate to China' s aspirations in the first decade of the twenty-first century. The framework is most relevant to those creative content industries in which sunk costs - that is, one-off costs of creative content development - are more than 50 percent of total outlay. Starting from a low base - and constrained by a legacy of state censorship and widespread intellectual property abuse - China aspires to move from 'made in China' to 'created in China'.