U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, a federal Democrat, revealed that senators from both parties resumed a proposal as soon as Wednesday to crack down on Chinese Communist Party censorship of Americans and U.S. companies. It is a new move by the U.S. Congress to hold Beijing accountable for its infiltration overseas.
U.S. officials have complained that the Communist government is increasingly silencing criticism of the Chinese Communist Party by forcing U.S. companies, from hotel chains and airlines to Hollywood movie producers, to take a pro-Beijing stance.
“We must monitor and address China’s (CCP) influence on censorship and intimidation of Americans and our companies so that we can develop a strategy to preserve this most fundamental freedom and hold accountable those who suppress and destroy it (freedom).” Merkley told Reuters.
Merkley, who will soon chair the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), is leading the effort to reintroduce the bill.
Bipartisan Bill Proposes Interagency Task Force
The bill is co-sponsored by Republican Senators Macro Rubio (R-Texas) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). A similar bill was introduced in 2019, but no further action has been taken.
The new censorship bill would direct the president to create an interagency task force under the National Security Council to oversee and address Chinese (Communist Party of China) censorship or intimidation of Americans and U.S. companies.
According to a copy of the proposed legislation seen by Reuters, it would require the issuance of a report with recommendations for the industries most associated with free speech, including the media and film industries.
The new censorship bill is one piece in a series of legislation to deal with the Chinese Communist Party, and congressional Democrats and Republicans share some common ground on opposition to Beijing. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also said Tuesday that he has directed lawmakers to develop a series of measures to deal with the Chinese Communist Party.
Chinese Communist Party Infiltration and Coercion of Overseas Companies
Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr said last year that Hollywood studios often succumb to pressure to censor films to “appease” the Chinese Communist Party, and that China had surpassed the United States last year to become the world’s largest film market.
In a speech at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Michigan on July 16, 2020, then-Attorney General Barr called on U.S. tech giants and Hollywood not to “appease” the Chinese Communist Party for short-term gain, because abandoning their principles would be more costly.
He cited Hollywood as an example of actors, producers and directors who pride themselves on promoting freedom and humanism. Every year, at the Academy Awards, Americans hear sermons about how this country has failed to live up to Hollywood’s ideals of social justice.
“Hollywood now routinely censors its own films to appease the Chinese Communist Party, the world’s most powerful violator of human rights. This censorship affects not only the versions of films released in China, but also many films shown in American theaters to American audiences.” Barr said at the Time.
In another example, on Oct. 5, 2019, NBA Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted (Twitter), “Fight for freedom and stand with Hong Kong,” leading to an article in the People’s Daily, the official media outlet of the Communist Party of China, protesting and calling for a boycott of the Rockets. This eventually led to the suspension of NBA games in China for a year.
In 2018, the Chinese Communist government forced airlines and hotel chains around the world to change the name of Taiwan for the purpose of dwarfing the Republic of China.
Republicans Demand Biden Administration Get Tough on CCP
Republican hawkish senators on China have recently increased pressure on Democratic President Joe Biden to stick with former President Donald Trump‘s (R-Texas) tough policy on Beijing.
A Senate Democratic aide who worked on the bill said the drafters realized it was a sensitive issue for companies and didn’t want to let the bad guys off the hook.
“We want to help the U.S. government focus on this issue,” the aide said. “In a sense, we’re trying to provide help to insulate companies from pressure rather than further heat up the situation.”
Some members of Congress argue that having a task force is not enough and that a stronger response is needed, such as making it easier for U.S. employees to file lawsuits if they are fired as a result of pressure from the Chinese Communist Party, or requiring U.S. universities to disclose their financial ties to the Confucius Institute.
The Biden Administration has said that they are reviewing their China-related policies and have pledged a tougher but more multilateral response to Beijing. But Biden has so far not revealed his specific plans, and neither Trump’s actions against the Chinese social media App TikTok (ShakeYin International) nor the U.S. investment ban on Chinese companies involved in the Communist Party’s military have been answered definitively by the Biden administration.
U.S. allies have also warned the Communist Party of China about extending its censorship black hand overseas. The German Interior Ministry said Tuesday that the Chinese Communist Party has tried to intimidate Hong Kong residents living in Germany.
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