Reuters reported that the U.S. cross-party Senate will resume legislation as soon as Wednesday (24th) to counter China’s censorship of American people and companies.
US Senator Jeff Merkley said that US officials have long complained that in order to suppress dissidents, the Chinese government must coerce American companies on the same side as Beijing, and that everything from hotels, airlines to Hollywood is oppressed.
Merkley, who will soon become the chairman of the Congressional China Issues Executive Committee, said in an email: “We must monitor and deal with the impact of Chinese censorship and the threats they pose to American and domestic companies in order to establish a mechanism to protect our freedom. Fundamentally, and requires the pressurers and saboteurs to take responsibility.”
The former U.S. Attorney General William Barr said last year that Hollywood companies often succumbed to Chinese pressure and self-censored films to “appease” China. The Houston Rockets manager once tweeted to support the Hong Kong democracy protests, which caused the NBA game to be suspended for one year in 2019. The Chinese government has repeatedly coerced airlines and hotel chains into changing the statements and classifications of Taiwan on the website.
This bill was jointly promoted by Republican Marco Rubio, John Cornyn, and Democrat Elizabeth Warren. A similar bill was proposed in 2019, but progress has been stagnant.
The new censorship bill will set up an interagency task force under the National Security Agency (NSC) by the president to monitor and deal with Chinese censorship or China’s coercion of American citizens and businesses. The draft bill will authorize transaction reports and make recommendations on industries where freedom of speech is particularly affected, including the media and film industries.
This is part of the US government’s series of legislation to deal with China. The US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that he has instructed members of Congress to formulate a series of measures in response to the rise of China.
One group in Congress advocates taking stronger measures beyond the establishment of a working group, such as simplifying the difficulty of filing a complaint for American employees if they are dismissed due to pressure from China, or requiring American universities to disclose the financial relationship with the Confucius Institute.
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