US law enforcement chief William Barr blasts American firms with China links for ‘kowtowing’ to Beijing, with Disney and Apple among the targets
- ‘Chinese government censors don’t need to say a word, because Hollywood is doing their work for them,’ says William Barr
- Barr also criticised Apple, citing reports that it had removed the Quartz news app from its App Store in China
The United States’ top law enforcement official slammed Hollywood studios and American tech firms for “kowtowing” to Beijing on Thursday, the latest in a coordinated series of speeches from senior US officials attacking the actions and ambitions of the Chinese government.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was seeking to “extend its influence around the world, including on American soil,” said US Attorney General William Barr during a China policy-related address at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Michigan.
“All too often, for the sake of short-term profits, American companies have succumbed to that influence, even at the expense of freedom and openness in the United States,” said Barr.
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China uses 'predatory' tactics against US companies, says US Attorney General Bill Barr
Singling out Marvel Studios, a Disney subsidiary, Barr pointed to its 2016 production of Doctor Strange, which switched the ethnicity of a monk in the original comics from Tibetan to Celtic.
One of the film’s screenwriters said in an interview following its release that casting the character as a Tibetan would have risked “alienating one billion people” and risked causing the government in China to ban the film’s screening there.
“Chinese government censors don’t need to say a word, because Hollywood is doing their work for them,” said Barr. “This is a massive propaganda coup for the Chinese Communist Party.”
Marvel Studios and Disney did not respond to a request for comment.