RED CHINA has a complicated relationship with the blue people of “Avatar.” Chinese moviegoers have made it the country’s highest grossing movie, and yet their government can’t decide whether to stymie this global phenomenon or cash in on it. So, they’re doing both.

FIRST STAGE: LOVE IT

James Cameron’s scifi epic debuted early this year to mostly rapturous audiences who cheered the clear anti-imperialist message. Some saw an indictment of George W. Bush’s warmongering. And America’s rapacious and ecologically ruinous appetite for natural resources. “The more advanced the technology, the greedier you become,” wrote one Chinese blogger. But some were put-off by the cross-cultural narcissism implicit in the white-man-saves-the-natives plot.

SECOND STAGE: HATE IT

Other killjoys also pointed out that the plight of the tree-hugging Na’vi, who are pushed off their land by a mechanized human army, resembles China’s own policy of forcefully relocating rural peasants to make way for dams and stadiums. Then there’s that whole cultural genocide echo with Tibet. As one Tibet supporter wrote, “I cannot help but compare the Na’vi to the plight of Tibetan nomads and farmers. It is almost like the story is inspired by the Khampa farmers who fought against a Chinese mining company and armed security forces to save their sacred mountain, Ser Ngul Lo, from being mined for gold.” To which one rabid China booster offered this Freudian slip: “Planet Pandora is an inseparable part of our motherland!”

It came as no surprise when China abruptly pulled “Avatar” from theaters to make room for a state-sponsored Confucius biopic, which fizzled most shamefully at the box office.

THIRD STAGE: CLAIM IT

What a difference a billion dollar makes! Now that “Avatar” has become the biggest movie in the known universe, China now claims that the towering rock columns of Hunan province are the inspiration for the floating Hallelujah Mountains of Pandora. China likes to take credit for just about everything except the invention of sliced bread, but this claim actually has merit. Cameron’s crews shot a ton of footage in the Wulingyuan Scenic Zone, footage that appeared in at least 20 minutes of the movie.

To lure die-hard Avatards and foreign visitors to this piece of Pandora on Earth, tourism officials have just recently changed the name of the Southern Sky Column to “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain.” To which Chairman Mao would probably say, “Comrades, can I get an ‘Amen!’” It should be noted that the well-publicized “christening” ceremony was replete with hundreds of locals dressed in the region’s ethnic Tujia costumes. No, the natives were not painted blue. Not yet.

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