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

reuters.com

81–90 of 226 posts

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

#81
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?

Critiques of the “capitalist system” would be better if you articulated a system that worked better on balance . In other words, a system that solves for these problems, but which introduces many other, worse problems (e.g., famine, ethnic cleansing, imprisonment/execution of political dissenters, etc) is not a better system on balance. If we struggle to find such an improved system, it probably means that the curren…

No it would not necessarily be better, on balance. A critique of a system is not meant to be an attack on it nor an argument that there is necessarily some other better system. In fact, I would argue that the difficulty with having these conversations nowadays is precisely your response.

In the American context at least, most of the time when people point out the failures in Capitalism people mean it more in the way that you might point out edge cases that need to be accounted for. The problem in having these conversations is people take it as some rhetorical device meant to actually promote Communism or some other philosophy.

The point OP is making here, as I understand it, is that there is a paradox in a Capitalist system in that if self-interest and profit are at it's core, then by definition that self-interest will override any other consideration to the point that any company will be more than willing to sacrifice any other concern for the possibility of making money.

We have known for the past 30 years at least that China is on a trajectory to surpass or challenge American supremacy and yet corp after corp was willing to send them technical knowledge and jobs that grew their economy to the point that they can build artificial islands in the South China Sea. Let me remind you that we won WW2 primarily on the strength of being able to outproduce our adversaries, not on technological superiority.

So now though, we're super concerned about Chinese influence in the tech industry, specifically. I am worried too, of course you have to be. But it's tremendously silly to act like now it's suddenly a concern and single out one sector or company (e.g. NBA) as if the sacrifice of values in order to make money is not an inherent characteristic of Capitalism.

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

#82
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It’s amazing how the law and order types who are always standing up for law enforcement are the first to say that the justice system unfairly pressures defendants when its one of their own.....

Oh and by the way, “The Hill” is definitely not part of the “liberal media.”

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

#83

Multinational corporations have no loyalty to anything except their shareholders. Politicians should not feign surprise when they do not align with national interest.

That's only because they choose to. The "Fiduciary obligation to shareholders" thing is not only wrong, but it isn't the way a system needs to work. A corporation, which is a legal entity that owns capital, production and services, is composed of people. Those people could use the powers of the corporation to advance the well being of its community.

Too often people skim over the fact that the corporation is a legal entity, and its nature is defined by the laws that sanction it.

A corporate charter can be revoked, and the laws of the corporation can be modified. We don't have to be fatalistic about this.

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

#84
post #36

> 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.”

Meanwhile Barr is insisting that all encryption tools, in order to be legal in the US, need to give copies of the keys to the government... you know to keep us safe from terrorists. And tax cheats. And pirated movie bootleggers.

Bingo. It's worthwhile to ask to what degree U.S. corporations should be doing business in Chinese markets, but it's also worthwhile keeping in mind that no U.S. administration is a purely disinterested party when they're raising these criticisms -- and this administration in particular, and this U.S. attorney general in particular, has a pretty strong track record of deliberately stoking partisan flames and finding "enemies" both within and without. China is the chosen foreign enemy, but tech companies are increasingly the chosen domestic enemy.

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

#85
post #36

> 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.”

Meanwhile Barr is insisting that all encryption tools, in order to be legal in the US, need to give copies of the keys to the government... you know to keep us safe from terrorists. And tax cheats. And pirated movie bootleggers.

I mean, he's clearly not arguing _against_ backdoors in that quote. He's basically saying, "China gets backdoors, we want them too."

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

#86
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It’s amazing how the law and order types who are always standing up for law enforcement are the first to say that the justice system unfairly pressures defendants when its one of their own..... Oh and by the way, “The Hill” is definitely not part of the “liberal media.”

According to his bio, he's a Harvard graduate.

I don't see how someone with that kind of education could be so easily mislead.

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

#87

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…

The opposite is true if we look at data.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/19/business/china-capital-flight...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-11/china-hid...

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

#88
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

#89

The same companies (rightfully) saying “Black Lives Matter” are willing to suspend Hong Kong protestors to appease the CCP. Just shows you how genuine their motives are, in case you had any doubts

Unless you're referring to something else, I think you misunderstood the quote from the article. These companies suspended response to _government requests for user data_ in Hong Kong, not the accounts of Hong Kong protestors. That is, they are refusing to hand information to the CCP. Barr is actually praising this action and saying they should unite to resist in more ways.

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

#90

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 o…

do you find it kinda scary that you can hate a regime so much given that you've never been to said country?

I'm 99% sure you've never been to China given what you wrote.

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