Chinese Officials Meet With U.S. Filmmakers

In a sign that relations between Beijing and Hollywood are on the mend, Chinese officials wooed American filmmakers in Santa Monica on Wednesday with the prospect of doing business with the image-conscious government.

The visit suggests Chinese officials have set aside their ire provoked by films such as Walt Disney Co.’s 1996 “Kundun.” The movie about the life of Tibet’s Dalai Lama was seen as critical of Chinese rule in Tibet and never officially screened in China.

“Everything is normal now,” Zheng Quan Gang, president of China Film Co-Production Corp., said of relations with Disney.

Zheng spoke to about 50 American film executives in a presentation sponsored by the American Film Market, an annual sales convention in which foreign distributors gather to view and bid on overseas rights to English-language films.

Zheng also visited the Burbank headquarters of Disney Studios, whose animated feature “Mulan” opened in Chinese theaters on Tuesday.