US Attorney General William Barr on Thursday assailed Walt Disney Co and Hollywood studios, accusing them of “kowtowing” to the Chinese Communist Party.
Barr’s allegations are part of a sustained diplomatic and public relations offensive by the administration of US President Donald Trump against Beijing, which Barr accused of engaging in “economic blitzkrieg — an aggressive, orchestrated, whole-of-government, indeed whole-of-society, campaign to seize the commanding heights of the global economy and to surpass the United States as the world’s pre-eminent superpower.”
In a speech in Michigan, Barr railed against US corporate leaders who he accused of abetting China’s hegemonic aims, particularly in the movie industry.
Photo: AFP
He said Disney had initially resisted Chinese pressure not to make the 1997 movie Kundun, about the Dalai Lama and Beijing’s annexation of Tibet.
“But that moment of courage wouldn’t last long,” Barr said.
China banned Disney’s movies, leading to an apology from the company for making Kundun.
The management then lobbied China to build a Disneyland in Shanghai, allowing Chinese officials to have a role in running the theme park.
Barr said that the officials “display hammer-and-sickle insignia at their desks and attend party lectures during business hours.”
“If Disney and other American corporations continue to bow to Beijing, they risk undermining both their own future competitiveness and prosperity, as well as the classical liberal order that has allowed them to thrive,” Barr said.
Barr also criticized Hollywood studios for bowing to pressure to tweak scripts in return for Chinese distribution, citing two cases in which the nationalities of characters were allegedly changed.
Beijing objected to a virus in a zombie apocalypse film, World War Z, being shown as originating in China, while a mystic character, the “Ancient One” in the fantasy movie Dr Strange was changed from being Tibetan to Celtic, to avoid upsetting China, Barr said.
He also criticized US technology companies — including Alphabet Inc’s Google, Microsoft Corp, Yahoo Inc, Apple Inc and Cisco Systems Inc — calling them “pawns of Chinese influence.”
“All too often, for the sake of short-term profits, American companies have succumbed to that influence — even at the expense of freedom and openness in the United States,” Barr said.
Cisco rejected Barr’s allegation that it had helped build the “Great Firewall of China,” which Barr referred to as the world’s “most sophisticated system for Internet surveillance and censorship.”
The company “builds its products to global standards, and Cisco does not supply equipment to China that is customized in any way to facilitate blocking of access or surveillance of users,” Cisco said in a statement to the Guardian. “The products we supply to China are the same we provide worldwide, and we comply fully with all export control rules applicable to China including those related to human rights.”
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