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

reuters.com

51–60 of 226 posts

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

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"?

s/American countries/client states

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

#52
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.

Companies need to stop doing business if the leaked drone footage of Uygher Muslims is true. But this is likely a statement from Barr made because Trump himself is about as effective as a burnt noodle in a gunfight in terms of foreign policy right now. The best he can do is act through others.

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

#53
> Barr suggested that Apple iPhones “wouldn’t be sold (in China) if they were impervious to penetration by Chinese authorities.” He suggested American tech companies were imposing a “double standard.”

He has a point there, but I am not sure I’d want to support Apple opening up to government authorities here.

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

#54

I see the East Coast power centers having waning influence on the Pacific Rim states of the West Coast, who are uniquely positioned to work with Asian countries

I see that the global center of capital is continuing its millenia long westward migration. Past the US west coast, and into China. From Prometheus Rising:

> Brooks Adams also noted that centralized capital (the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few inter-related families) seems to have been moving steadily West throughout recorded history. The first major accumulations are to be found in Sumer; the center of money-power then shifted to Egypt, to Greece, to the Italian peninsula, to various parts of Germany, and then to London. At the time Brooks Adams was writing (c. 1900) he saw the balance teetering between London and New York, and he predicted that the decline of the English Empire would shift the balance to New York within the first half of the 20th Century. He seems to have been right. Brooks Adams had no theory as to why this Westward movement of wealth had been going on for 6000 years. He merely observed the pattern. The shift is still continuing, in the opinion of many. For instance, Carl Oglesby in The Cowboy vs. Yankee War, sees American politics since 1950 dominated by a struggle between “old Yankee wealth” (the New York-Boston axis, which replaced London after 1900) and “new Cowboy wealth” (Texas-California oil-and-aerospace billionaires). As of 1997, it looks like the Cowboys are winning; which is what one would expect if there were a real “law” behind Adams’ East-West migration of capital.

Californication has come and gone.

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

#55
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those allegations turned out to be false.

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

Only because he was pressured to, to save himself and his son financially.

This is an incredible scandal which didn't come to light since the DOJ dropped the case against him.

The prosecutors colluded with his own law firm to deny him justice.

This has all come out since Syndey Powell took his case.

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

#56
post #2

Original title: "Attorney General Barr accuses Hollywood, Big Tech of collaborating with China"

He's not wrong. But it also doesn't make him any less of an asshole -- Barr is a shady character.

Sure, if you only pay attention to the MSM...

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

#57
post #44

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.

They absolutely did not turn out to be false

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

#58
I detest Trump (voted for Clinton) and most, if not all, senior members of his administration, including Barr. But that doesn't prevent me from ultimately being OK with some of their statements/actions, even if they're all for the wrong reasons. The regime in China represents evil on a scale that is probably unprecedented in Earth's history, and anything that can stop or slow its world domination should be welcomed or at the very least acquiesced to. That regime is bad for the overwhelming majority of Chinese people (regardless of race and religion), bad for everyone else, and bad for the planet.

The above paragraph risks triggering some knee-jerk "what about the US/NATO?" responses. Let me save you the trouble: the West is guilty of countless crimes, especially against non-White people. But at least for some periods in history, most citizens of most Western countries were not systematically disenfranchised, monitored, disappeared, tortured, and killed. Yes, living in America while being Black, Hispanic, Arab (that's me), Muslim (ditto), etc. there's still a lot of anxiety, discrimination, and even danger. But it's incredibly naive to think the people of China are not orders of magnitude more oppressed and in constant fear for their livelihoods, lives, and loved ones.

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

#59
post #23

> Barr suggested that Apple iPhones “wouldn’t be sold (in China) if they were impervious to penetration by Chinese authorities.” He suggested American tech companies were imposing a “double standard.”

IIRC, last year Apple setup a server within China for holding the iCloud security keys for the Chinese-owned iPhones? Definitely some collaboration there..

iCloud in China is operated by Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Co Ltd, which is owned by the Guizhou provincial government. As I understand, it isn't Apple's servers at all.

China has some strict protectionist policies for a fairly decent list industries, not just tech. Many foreign companies that operate in China have to do so through joint ventures or other partnerships with domestic Chinese companies.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208351

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201801/11/WS5a56a3cca3102e5b1...

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

#60
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Companies need to stop doing business if the leaked drone footage of Uygher Muslims is true. But this is likely a statement from Barr made because Trump himself is about as effective as a burnt noodle in a gunfight in terms of foreign policy right now. The best he can do is act through others.

You mean like the government stopped doing business with Saudi Arabia after 9/11 or how we didn’t support the Osama led Sandinistas in the 80s?

The US government can’t exactly stand up tsk tsking with any type of moral authority on anything.

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