A A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is headed to California this week to meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Disney CEO Bob Iger and other powerhouses in Hollywood and Silicon Valley to talk from China
The ten lawmakers participating in the three-day trip are part of the House Select Committee investigating the Chinese Communist Party, which is chaired by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), the leader of the trip. The delegation has a full schedule of private meetings Wednesday through Friday with key figures in the technology and media industries.
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The group will meet with Iger on the Disney lot in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday to discuss the company’s relationship with Beijing, a source familiar with the plans told Axios. Disney has come under fire for its cozy relationship with the CCP and has been accused of ignoring Beijing’s human rights abuses and bowing to censorship demands in exchange for access to the lucrative Chinese market.
Lawmakers will also meet with other producers and screenwriters to discuss China’s demands on the entertainment industry.
On Thursday, the delegation will head to Silicon Valley to meet with Microsoft chairman Brad Smith and Kent Walker, president of global affairs and chief legal officer of Alphabet. They will also meet with executives from Palantir and Scale AI.
The panel will begin Friday at Apple headquarters with Cook, who just returned last week from his first trip to China since the COVID-19 pandemic, before hosting a discussion on Russia-China relations with former Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Stanford fellow Oriana Skylar Mastro. .
The lawmakers will also meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, although it is not clear when.
A source familiar with the trip’s plans told Axios that the delegation was “intended to hear them mostly about how they are thinking about various issues.”
“Not everything can be defensive,” the source said. “We also have to think about the offense and how to compete.”
Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., left, working with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., ranking member, right, leads the newly formed House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party , as the panel adopts its rules ahead of a prime-time hearing tonight on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. Gallagher says he wants to bridge partisan divides and inform Americans about the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
The trip comes as US lawmakers try to develop a cohesive policy platform to respond to intellectual property, trade and national security concerns emanating from China. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), the ranking member of the panel who is part of the trip to California, has publicly expressed optimism about the prospect of reaching bipartisan deals in China.
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Gallagher has said he plans to call Iger and NBA commissioner Adam Silver to testify before the committee about their working relationships with Beijing, though he also expressed a willingness to go talk to them directly .
“I would even be willing to go out, when it comes to Hollywood or Disney, I would be willing to go out and sit with them where they are, you know, engage with them in a discussion,” Gallagher told the Conservative. radio host Hugh Hewitt in January. “But we want to have a discussion in front of the American people. I think it drives the American people crazy when they see the NBA bend the knee [Chinese premier] Xi Jinping”.
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