will it show the brutality of Maoist china
or gloss over it to make the Chinese happy?
Don't hate on contrarians
The villains in the movie are government officials who want to wipe out the wolf population to protect their business interests. On the whole, however, the movie relatively easy on Maoists -- the hero even quotes Mao at one point ("You must learn from your enemy in order to defeat it").
No surprise, really, since the Chinese controlled every aspect of the production and it's their official entry for the Oscars. Annaud made the film on their dollar.