U.S. Companies Should Stop Bowing to Beijing
It’s well known that freedom of expression does not exist in China. The country’s dictatorship regularly and harshly persecutes its citizens if they dare to dissent, protest, or petition for free and fair elections.
And now Beijing is forcibly exporting this culture of censorship to its many business partners around the world.
The examples are endless. Apple removed Taiwan flag emojis from its phones in Hong Kong; Marriott sought forgiveness from Beijing after an employee “liked” a tweet about Tibet; McDonalds pulled a television ad that angered Chinese authorities; American Airlines altered its materials to erase Taiwan as a self-governed country; Nike pulled a line of sneakers made in collaboration with a Japanese company that had expressed support for protesters in Hong Kong on social media; retailer Muji was fined for listing Taiwan as a country in its stores, while Audi apologized for the same mistake; Vans canceled the winning submission of a design competition because the design featured a reference to the Hong Kong protest movement; and, most recently, the esports giant Blizzard has grovelingly acquiesced to the political correctness of China’s dictatorship by punishing one of the world’s top gamers for speaking out for democracy in Hong Kong.
Eclipsing all of these stories, sports fans across the world were shocked to see the National Basketball Association, commonly considered the most socially-progressive American sports league, brought to heel by the Chinese Communist Party after the Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted an image simply saying: “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong.” What happened next was sadly predictable: Morey’s tweet was swiftly deleted, he issued an embarrassing apology to Beijing, and the NBA went into overdrive mode to smooth things over.
Following the NBA’s kowtowing, U.S. sports teams are continuing to engage in self-censorship. Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and star player Stephen Curry have refused to answer reporters’ questions about China. At a Washington Wizards game, fans had their pro-democracy signs confiscated and were encouraged to leave the arena. And in Philadelphia, fans with signs supporting Hong Kong’s protesters were ejected from the 76ers game. Beyond the issue of Hong Kong, one of their signs said: “Google Uyghurs,” a reference to the Muslim minority in northwestern China currently being interned in concentration camps by the millions.
Many companies supported and even rallied behind the human rights and social justice initiatives of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. There was money to be made (and virtue to be signaled) in supporting Kaepernick. Apparently, there is no virtue to be signaled for corporations if there is money to be lost by angering their Chinese paymasters. The hypocrisy is breathtaking.
Rather than rebuking Beijing for its bullying, Western multinationals are obsequiously bowing to pressure and doing as they’re told while promising to never again commit the same “errors” in thinking or business practices. Meanwhile, the Chinese regime is working towards a state of world hegemony to ensure that its own people are unable to imagine an alternative to the Communist party ruling China.
Using its control of the Chinese economy and its ability to shut down access to the market, Beijing is getting what it wants: a vast ecosystem of companies across the free world that are serving as propaganda arms of the Chinese government in enforcing a rewrite of history or acceptance of China’s political goals.
In most of these cases, the businesses in question have excused their self-censorship with references to wanting to stay above the political fray or claiming that the people expressing support for Hong Kong (or Taiwan) are “disruptive” or “disrespectful.” Consider what would happen in the free world if its leaders were able to silence those who are disrespectful of power or deemed “disruptive.”
Another area of concern is China’s influence in the entertainment industry. When was the last time Hollywood produced a film that made any reference to China that was less than glowing? When was the last time a film addressed the fact that China is the world’s largest tyranny? Organ harvesting, anyone? Concentration camps in Xinjiang? Orwellian surveillance and financial control?
Ironically, the film industry depends on freedom of expression for its artistic endeavors. As China’s power to control the narrative expands, movie studios and producers will be forced to grapple with these issues of corporate control, profitability and how best to appease dictatorships.
Considering that China’s bullies are so brittle that a single tweet sends them into a tailspin, leaders of industry should not be afraid to do the right thing. If Western business leaders stand together in categorical support of freedom of expression, China would have to face the possibility of abandoning their lucrative relationships with the Western market.
Companies that built their successes on American freedoms should stop apologizing for operating with those values at the forefront, no matter where in the world they stand to profit.
