In the next three months, three glossy Hollywood movies which Beijing views as being deeply anti-China are set to open across the United States. And none of them will be screened in Hong Kong if the current climate - which some claim is 'self-censorship' - prevails.
Two of the films are on Tibet, dealing with the life of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese occupation of the country in 1949. The first, Seven Years in Tibet, starring Brad Pitt and David Thewlis, opened on Wednesday in the US to a Time magazine cover story entitled 'America's fascination with Buddhism'.
The second, Kundun, directed by Martin Scorsese, is based directly on the official biography of the Dalai Lama and features a cast of unknown Tibetans. It opens in America on Christmas Day, and has already been the subject of vociferous protests by the Chinese authorities, including threats against its producer, Disney.
And finally, Richard Gere is starring in a movie called Red Corner, directed by Jon Avnet and co-starring actress Bai Ling. Red Corner, which opens in the US on October 31, is not about Tibet: the story centres on an American businessman (Gere) in China who falls foul of the authorities and must fight for his life 'in the labyrinthine Chinese legal system'.
But it seems unlikely that Gere, the co-chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, will present a bouquet of sweet-smelling roses to China with this film. In a recent attack on President Bill Clinton's China policy, the 47-year-old actor and close friend of the Dalai Lama spoke of what he claims to be 'China's brutal disregard for the most basic human freedoms'.
As President Jiang Zemin prepares for his historic US trip, Hollywood appears to have been swept away by Tibet and, in the process, seems locked on a collision course with China.
