A bipartisan group of US lawmakers is taking their concerns about China to California this week, where they plan to meet President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) along with top technology and entertainment executives.
The trip — led by US Representative Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the US House Select Committee on China — is aimed at understanding how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influences US social values and discourse, a person familiar with the committee’s plans said.
About half a dozen lawmakers are to begin their trip in Los Angeles on Wednesday, where they are scheduled to meet with Walt Disney Co CEO Bob Iger and other producers and screenwriters to talk about Beijing’s demands on US films in exchange for access to the Chinese market, the person said.
Photo: AP
The lawmakers are expected to ask how the CCP inserts its narrative — and scrubs objectionable content — not just in films shown in China, but also in global productions in a way that undermines the soft power of exporting US culture.
That stop is to include a meeting with Tsai during her stopover as she returns from an official visit to Guatemala and Belize, the person said.
Tsai is also expected to meet with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, in his home state.
She met last week with US House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat, in his home state of New York, people familiar with the event said.
Taiwan’s Presidential Office has declined to confirm Tsai’s planned meetings in advance.
The group on Thursday is to have lunch in the San Francisco Bay Area with executives from Alphabet Inc’s Google, Microsoft Corp, Palantir Technologies Inc and Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook, the person said, adding that dinner that night is to include several prominent venture capitalists, including Marc Andreessen and Vinod Khosla.
The China committee under Gallagher’s leadership has sought out forums beyond the traditional hearing room on Capitol Hill to understand all aspects of the “strategic competition” between the world’s two largest economies.
The committee’s conversations with private-sector leaders are taking place as US companies across the economy re-evaluate their exposure to China and their reliance on its consumers and supply chains.
US relations with China have been strained over China’s support for Russia, a spy balloon that flew over the US and bipartisan calls in Washington to ban the popular video-sharing app TikTok because of its Chinese parent, ByteDance Inc.
Gallagher and US Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the China Committee, who is scheduled to be on the trip, co-sponsored one of several bills seeking to block TikTok from operating in the US.
Some industries are of particular concern, including pharmaceuticals, rare earth minerals, artificial intelligence and quantum computing, the person said.
The conversations are to focus on how the US government and the private sector need to work together to confront the threat from China, the person added.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS