Hollywood ‘too willing’ to bow to China, says US attorney general

Sophia Yan

Harriet Alexander HOLLYWOOD companies and tech giants have been “too willing” to appease China, the US attorney general said yesterday.

William Barr singled out Walt Disney, Apple, Google and Microsoft over their company actions with China.

“I suspect Walt Disney would be disheartened to see how the company he founded deals with the foreign dictatorships of our day,” said Mr Barr, in a speech at the Gerald R Ford Presidential Museum in Michigan.

He added that Hollywood has rou- tinely caved into pressure and censored its films “to appease the Chinese Communist Party”. Earlier this year, Disney’s Mulan had a kiss scene cut after objections from Chinese censors.

“Corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Apple have shown themselves all too willing to collaborate with [the Chinese Communist

Party],” he said. China yesterday described a potential US travel ban on party members as “pathetic” and pledged to respond to “bullying” as relations between the powers deteriorate. Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokesman, also invited Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, to visit China’s western Xinjiang region to see that there were no human rights violations. She was speaking after accusations of wrongdoing against the Uighur Muslim minorities in the area.

China issued its response after reports said the Trump administration is considering a travel ban against members of the Chinese Communist Party and their relatives. The draft presidential proclamation could affect as many as 270million people, according to an internal government estimate, reported The New York Times. It could also authorise the government to revoke visas for party members and their families already in the country.

Asked whether the recent sanctions imposed by Washington will affect the Phase 1 trade deal China reached with the US earlier this year, Ms Hua told reporters: “We always implement our commitments but we know that some in the US are oppressing China and bullying China. As an independent sovereign state, China must respond to the bullying practices by the US side; we must say no, we must make responses and take reactive moves to it.”

Restricted entry to the US could also apply to members of the Chinese military and executives at state-owned enterprises – typically appointed by the party.