A bipartisan group of lawmakers is heading to California this week to meet with tech and entertainment CEOs to talk about China policy. A delegation from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party under the leadership of Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), is set to talk with Disney CEO Bob Iger, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and others about the complicated relationship that U.S. corporations have with China.
“Big Tech companies and Hollywood giants are increasingly caught up in escalating tensions between the U.S. and China over intellectual property and trade issues,” reports Axios, which is why these legislators want to discuss China with business leaders.
The private meetings are “intended to just hear mostly from them about how they’re thinking about various issues,” according to one committee aide, who also told Axios, “This can’t all be defensive. We also need to be thinking about offensive and how do we out-compete.”
The first meeting on Wednesday will take place with Iger. Disney’s roller coaster with China is a prime example of how fraught relations with the communist nation can be. For years, the studio has desperately courted a relationship with China, even bowing to censorship demands in order to release films there.
Disney also caught flak for filming its live-action version of Mulan in Xinjiang province, practically within sight of where China was mistreating the province’s ethnic Uyghur minority. Disney even has two theme parks in China — one in Hong Kong and another in Shanghai.
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“With tensions continuing to rise between the U.S. and China, and Disney layoffs of more than 300 employees in the streaming industry already happening in China, there are some who speculate the company may begin pulling back out of the country,” reports Andrew Boardwine at Inside the Magic. However, It’s unclear just how much Disney could detangle itself from China if tensions ratcheted up too high.
Iger is the only studio CEO the delegation is meeting with, but later on Wednesday, they will meet with producers, screenwriters, and other entertainment industry executives. Then, on Thursday, “committee members will meet with a group of Silicon Valley leaders including Microsoft president Brad Smith, Alphabet president of global affairs & chief legal officer Kent Walker, as well as executives from Palantir and Scale AI,” according to Axios.
The delegation will meet with Cook on Friday. The Apple head honcho returned last week from his first trip to China since the COVID-19 pandemic, where he spoke at a conference that the Chinese government sponsored.
“I am thrilled to be back in China. It means the world to me, and I feel really privileged to be here,” Cook said in a speech in which he touted Apple’s relationship with China. However, Axios also reports that Apple is considering taking at least some of its manufacturing out of China.
The Congressional delegation doesn’t have specific legislation it wants to promote, but it’s looking to talk about certain policy points, “including discussing ways companies are planning to curb the use of forced labor in supply chains.”
We’re clearly at a decision point with China, and U.S. policymakers need to figure out how to move forward. Here’s hoping that this committee delegation is the start of more action to pry China’s fingers from our economy.
