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.
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