Here's why Chow Yun-Fat's role in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was reduced in China. The Chinese action movie star is best known for his international films like Hard Boiled or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but he joined the realm of American blockbusters with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise in 2003. Chow Yun-Fat portrayed Captain Sao Feng in the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie in what served as an important supporting role.
The plot of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End follows Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) as they attempt to rescue Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from Davy Jones' locker and bring him back to life. This story eventually leads to Will and Elizabeth meeting Sao Feng as they attempted to steal his navigational charts to locate the locker. Although Sao Feng wants Jack to remain dead, he agrees to a deal with Will and Elizabeth that will make Will captain of the Black Pearl in exchange for a reunion with Jack. And while Sao Feng gets to confront Jack again, he dies in the film's climax.
With this role, Yun-Fat receives nearly twenty minutes of screen-time in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. However, he received a much smaller role in China thanks to Chinese censors. The reason for the reduced role of Sao Feng was the belief among Chinese censors that it vilified and defaced the Chinese. As a result, Sao Feng was only featured in roughly 10 minutes of the version of Pirates of the Caribbean 3 released in China. The smaller role for Sao Feng did not dramatically change his arc, although they do make it more difficult to track the plot.
These changes are an early example of the censorship that still impacts movies potentially being released in China to this day. Among the specific scenes cut from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End includes Sao Feng reciting a famous Chinese poem. Another cut removed his "Welcome to Singapore" line due to the implication Singapore is a land for pirates. Although these cuts were made to get the film's Chinese release approved, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 didn't perform that well in the country. It made less than $17 million in its entire run, making it the 11th highest international market for the film.
Even though Disney allowed Chow Yun-Fat's role to be reduced and didn't see that big of a return, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End still played a valuable part in the franchise's popularity in China growing. After the second film wasn't released in the country, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 managed to get fans interested again. This led to Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides making $70 million in China, with 2017's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales grossing over $170M of its $794M total in China. So, even though Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End had to reduce Chow Yun-Fat's role to release in China, Disney has since seen the financial gain of growing a fan base there.