A bipartisan group of US senators were to revive legislation as soon as yesterday to counter Chinese censorship in the US, a new effort by US lawmakers to hold Beijing accountable for its growing efforts to stifle criticism beyond its borders, US Senator Jeff Merkley said.
US officials have complained that the Chinese government has increasingly sought to suppress opposition to the Chinese Communist Party by coercing US companies — from hotel chains and airlines to Hollywood film producers — to take pro-Beijing stances.
“We must monitor and address the impacts of China’s censorship and intimidation of Americans and our companies, so we can create a strategy to safeguard this bedrock freedom and hold those accountable who suppress and destroy it,” Merkley, a Democrat leading the effort who is soon to be chair of the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said in e-mailed comments.
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The bill is cosponsored by Republicans Marco Rubio and John Cornyn, as well as Democrat Elizabeth Warren. A similar bill was introduced in 2019, but stalled.
The new censorship bill would direct the US president to set up an interagency task force under the National Security Council to monitor and address China’s censorship or intimidation of Americans and US companies.
It would mandate a report with recommendations for “industries in which freedom of expression issues are particularly acute, including the media and film industries,” a copy of the proposed legislation showed.
The censorship bill is among a barrage of legislation to confront China, as deeply divided Democrats and Republicans in Congress find common ground opposing Beijing.
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday said that he had directed lawmakers to craft a package of measures to counter China’s rise.
In 2018, the Chinese government compelled global airlines and hotel chains to change their online references to Taiwan to imply that it is part of China.
Former US attorney general William Barr last year said that Hollywood companies routinely caved to pressure and censored their films to “appease” China, which last year overtook the US as the world’s largest film market.
Entertainment companies did not respond to Barr’s allegations at the time.
NBA games were taken off the air in China for a year in 2019 following a Twitter message from a Houston Rockets manager backing Hong Kong democracy protests.
A Democratic Senate aide involved with the bill said that drafters recognized it was a sensitive issue for companies, and did not want to make bad guys out of “victims of economic coercion.”
“We want to help provide focus in the US government to address this problem,” the aide said. “In a certain sense, we are trying to help insulate companies from pressure rather than raise the temperature further.”
Some in Congress say that a task-force approach is not sufficient and call for a stronger response, such as making it easier for US employees to sue if fired based on pressure from China, or requiring US universities to disclose financial ties to Confucius Institutes, which are Chinese government-backed cultural centers.
US allies have also warned of Chinese censorship playing out at home.
Germany on Tuesday said that China had tried to intimidate Hong Kong residents living in the country since pro-democracy protests broke out in the territory two years ago.
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