AG urges US companies to resist serving as ‘pawns’ for China

WASHINGTON: Accusing American firms of engaging in “corporate appeasement” of the Chinese Communist Party, attorney general William Barr called on the private sector on Thursday to get tougher in resisting what he portrayed as corrupting efforts by China to cheat and bully its way into taking over the global economy.
Barr denounced China as an authoritarian state that found willing “pawns” as it sought to infiltrate, censor and co-opt American private sector and steal technological know-how. He focused in particular on entertainment and high-tech businesses. Barr cited Paramount Pictures altering a scene in the 2013 movie “World War Z”, in which the characters had speculated that a virus outbreak had started in China, to avoid angering the Chinese government. He called it a “propaganda coup for China”.
He also lambasted Silicon Valley firms, saying that Cisco had helped China build its massive system for censoring and surveilling the internet, and that “Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple have shown themselves to be all too willing to collaborate” with China. He also accused Chinese state hackers of targeting US varsities and businesses to steal research related to Covid vaccine.
China foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Friday denied the US charges and said it will fight back against the “malicious slander”. “These people, for self-interest and political gain, do not hesitate to hijack domestic public opinion... to the point where they have lost their minds and gone mad.”