US Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner said he was “disappointed” that companies such as Apple Inc and Tesla Inc tout their environmental, social and governance (ESG) bona fides, but neglect glaring environmental or human rights issues when relying on China for supply chains and sales.
Multinationals might highlight their commitment to ESG goals, but also reason that “the Chinese markets, it’s so big, we’ve got to turn a blind eye” to abuses, Warner said in an interview with Bloomberg in New York. “Whether it’s oppression of the people in Hong Kong or whether it’s the Uighurs or whether it’s using electrical power coming out of Xinjiang to build the batteries that go in your Tesla.”
China has been accused of widespread human rights abuses against mostly Muslim Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang region.
Photo: AP
Warner said that he was “disappointed with our friends at Apple” and has been “really frustrated with not just American companies, but other multinationals.”
Spokespeople for Apple and Tesla did not immediately return e-mails seeking comment on Tuesday.
Sales in China accounted for about one-quarter of Tesla’s automotive revenue in the third quarter, while about one-fifth of Apple’s revenue comes from China.
Warner reiterated his past calls to get the US off an over-reliance on Chinese supply chains and other initiatives.
He said that a blockade of Taiwan by China would be “an economic catastrophe” and hostilities with China would be “exponentially different” than with Russia.
“If China dominates a series of the technology domains, they could run the table,” he said.
Warner said that there would probably be additional legislative action on the issue, including on synthetic biology, advanced energy, quantum computing and other emerging technologies.
Warner said he is also concerned about Elon Musk’s reliance on China amid the Tesla chief executive’s recent statements about Taiwan and his potential purchase of Twitter Inc.
“I don’t think there is another American more dependent upon the largess of the [Chinese] Communist Party [CCP] than Elon Musk,” Warner said in an interview in New York.
Musk told the Financial Times that Taiwan should agree to become a special administrative zone of China to resolve tensions with Beijing.
Musk also said Beijing has sought assurances that he will not offer SpaceX’s Starlink Internet service in China.
Warner, of Virginia, said he is concerned that if Musk’s US$44 billion bid to buy Twitter goes through, he would face additional pressure from China to moderate posts critical of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) or the CCP.
“That to me is much more troubling, or potentially troubling, than whether [former US president] Donald Trump’s on Twitter,” he said, referring to Musk’s criticism of Twitter’s ban on Trump.
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