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U.S. attorney general: Hollywood, tech companies “pawns of Chinese influence”

reuters.com

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Re: U.S. attorney general: Hollywood, tech companies “pawns of Chinese influence”

#41

Post by bryanrasmussen »

pwillia7 wrote: post #27
dx87 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think virtue signaling would be saying something to stave off public criticism with no direct monetary benefit, and marketing would be like companies that support gay rights because it means they can sell a bunch of rainbow colored merchandise during pride month.

What motive would a company (of sufficient size) have to signal virtue if not in pursuit of profits? Companies without an all powerful strongman on top are amoral, and primarily in the U.S. are only concerned with their shareholders as opposed to all stake holders in the chain's long term value and health. https://www.inc.com/maureen-kline/why-debate-over-stakeholde...

It depends on the company - Disney needs to signal virtue because virtue is part of their brand and everyone knows who they are, Thomson Reuters is not that well known and only need to signal virtue to their valuable employees who might not want to stay at some place they found too scummy (but who knows, money is a great persuader), Monsanto - I don't know, I somehow feel virtue is not on-brand where they're concerned and signalling would make people uneasy.

Re: U.S. attorney general: Hollywood, tech companies “pawns of Chinese influence”

#42

Post by Aunche »

It should be very clear that the US government wants to manufacture consent towards a trade war or cold war rather than actually care about human rights or national security. They’re so quick to pull the trigger to ruin Hong Kong’s economy, but they have yet to do anything to support asylum seekers.

Re: U.S. attorney general: Hollywood, tech companies “pawns of Chinese influence”

#43

Post by user555555555 »

vmception wrote: post #35
blaser-waffle wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear, the Chinese plainly think the US is a rival, and have been pushing on things harder than usual to test what the global response is.

US leaders need to make it clear how they expect Americans and American countries (edit: I meant companies) to act, via new and existing legislation and orders. Absent that, the incentives just aren't there. There is a way to do business/life in China where you aren’t exposed to the things we disagree about with China, and its also now a very large market based economy with all the trappings and comforts of being ric…

"American countries"?

Re: U.S. attorney general: Hollywood, tech companies “pawns of Chinese influence”

#44

Post by ghthor »

jhpriestley wrote: post #22

Barr didn't seem too concerned about foreign influence when it came to a national security advisor lying to the government about cash payments from Turkey and illegal coordination with Russia.

Those allegations turned out to be false.

Re: U.S. attorney general: Hollywood, tech companies “pawns of Chinese influence”

#46

Post by scarface74 »

Shivetya wrote: post #5

They need to be called out. The amount of virtue signaling these companies do in the US does not excuse their actions elsewhere. This is not confined to the US either, countries in other parts of the world will engage in actions for the Chinese government they would not do at home or without great public fanfare about how they are against it.

Called out by the current government that dog whistles?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics

I’ll take virtue signaling over dog whistling any day.

I bet he doesn’t call out Apple after Cook kissed the golden ring during the photo op last year.

Re: U.S. attorney general: Hollywood, tech companies “pawns of Chinese influence”

#47

Post by scarface74 »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #41
pwillia7 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What motive would a company (of sufficient size) have to signal virtue if not in pursuit of profits? Companies without an all powerful strongman on top are amoral, and primarily in the U.S. are only concerned with their shareholders as opposed to all stake holders in the chain's long term value and health. https://www.inc.com/maureen-kline/why-debate-over-stakeholde...

It depends on the company - Disney needs to signal virtue because virtue is part of their brand and everyone knows who they are, Thomson Reuters is not that well known and only need to signal virtue to their valuable employees who might not want to stay at some place they found too scummy (but who knows, money is a great persuader), Monsanto - I don't know, I somehow feel virtue is not on-brand where they're concerne…

Yet Disney celebrated Pride month even though they had to know that it would cause criticism from the “Focus on the Family” crowd.

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2020/06/recognize-pri...

Re: U.S. attorney general: Hollywood, tech companies “pawns of Chinese influence”

#48

Post by scarface74 »

ghthor wrote: post #44
jhpriestley wrote: post #22

Barr didn't seem too concerned about foreign influence when it came to a national security advisor lying to the government about cash payments from Turkey and illegal coordination with Russia.

Those allegations turned out to be false.

Flynn admitted lying.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/policy/defense/4217...

Re: U.S. attorney general: Hollywood, tech companies “pawns of Chinese influence”

#49

Post by medium_burrito »

paxys wrote: post #13

Conveniently left out are all the Republican-friendly companies and industries which do the same (and more). Automobile, equipment manufacturers, aircrafts, fast food, clothing, sports leagues...everyone bows down to money. This is the obvious result of our capitalist system. What's the point in calling out a handful of tech companies?

Because they have inordinate influence, same as with all the movie studios that are now heavily reliant on China for money. Most countries don't do great stuff constantly, but China is definitely outdoing itself the last few years: - Hong Kong - Organ harvesting - Enslave/sterilize Muslim minorities - Sinking Vietnamese fishing boats - Killing Indian soldiers - Coverup of the whole virus situation until it was too late - Constantly threatening invasion of Taiwan (likely to happen this decade)

Saying "but muh business" is wrong. Either you think these actions are fine, or you think they are wrong and you can see the clear path where these are leading. Last time we kept on appeasing a dictatorial ethnostate the world took a while to recover.

Re: U.S. attorney general: Hollywood, tech companies “pawns of Chinese influence”

#50

Post by realmod »

justinzollars wrote: post #16

I'm not sure this is true. Many tech companies I've worked for in the past have had a lot of trouble operating in China. Some don't even try. The NBA on the other hand. I love Steve Kerr. He tweets daily about Trump and how he abuses human rights, but ask him about HK and he gets quite really quick. If a man that rich is afraid to say something - thats a tremendous amount of power. I just don't see this type influenc…

Employing your line of thought - noone should condemn anything unless they condemn everything antithetical to their principals/views.

Furthermore, Kerr is an employee and whatever statement he makes on HK would be inconsequential but also extremely harmful to his employer and co-workers. If actual change is wanted then we should divert our attention to the government where the real change happen.

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