The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- John Furner
House lawmakers are preparing to meet this week with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Disney CEO Robert Iger in a series of meetings with Silicon Valley and Hollywood power brokers about countering China‘s threat to America.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, is leading several lawmakers to California on Wednesday, according to sources close to the committee.
The lawmakers will meet Mr. Iger in Hollywood and plan to huddle privately with producers, screenwriters and studio executives to discuss concerns about censorship and other issues involving requirements for access to screen films and shows in China’s market.
Lawmakers will join Mr. Cook on Friday, and the representatives’ trip to Silicon Valley will involve hearing from companies such as Microsoft and Palantir. A meeting is also scheduled for the lawmakers with major venture capitalists, including Marc Andreessen and Vinod Khosla.
Proposed restrictions on TikTok are expected to be discussed in the committee members’ meetings with the Big Tech leaders, though lawmakers have a broader range of issues to raise, according to a source close to the committee.
Topics involving intellectual property, outbound capital, cryptocurrency, and supply chain diversification and risks are on the top of lawmakers’ minds, and the leaders of Silicon Valley and Hollywood are expected to raise a range of concerns as well.
The lawmakers are also set to meet with experts based at Stanford University, including former Defense Secretary James Mattis and political scientist Oriana Skylar Mastro.
China is a sensitive issue for California’s tech and Hollywood elite. The private gatherings with the Hollywood bigwigs are intended to provide a candid forum for conversation while also shielding the entertainment industry workers from retribution from China over meeting with the lawmakers, according to a source familiar with the committee‘s plans.
Mr. Gallagher, Wisconsin Republican, has co-written a bipartisan bill to implement a ban of the China-based, video-sharing platform TikTok.
