Apple's and Disney's CEO meets with lawmakers to discuss competition with China

Tech and media executives visited California this week to share their experiences of working in China and competing with it.

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The House Select Committee, with about ten members, made a trip west to meet with industry leaders and subject matter experts about key concerns regarding Chinese relations with the United States. The delegation was comprised of members of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

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Legislators were expected to meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Disney CEO Bob Iger during the three-day trip, as well as senior executives from Google, Microsoft, Palantir, and Scale AI. According to a source close to the committee, there were also meetings planned with venture capitalists, Stanford University academics, and a group of producers, screenwriters, and former studio executives who have expertise working with China.

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The trip serves as a reminder of how important the media and technology sectors are to America's complicated relationship with China. While these sectors frequently rely on the enormous audiences and workforces present in China, their reliance on the nation raises concerns about human rights and free expression issues due to the government's censorship regulations as well as supply chain hazards.

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After their historic meeting in California on Wednesday, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., are now traveling to Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party hierarchy was incensed by that encounter, which former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also praised. The conference was referred to as a "provocation" by the Chinese government, which also pledged to take "resolute actions."

The select committee's delegation of legislators spent time in Hollywood learning about a variety of subjects pertaining to rivalry with China. According to the individual acquainted with the committee's operations, censoring of creative content was a major topic in a meeting with Disney's Iger and subsequently at a dinner with other studio executives. Executives talked about how to deal with self-censorship to attempt to avoid offending the Chinese government even before filming starts and how to deal with edit requests they receive from the government in order to broadcast movies in the nation.

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The source claims that Microsoft President Brad Smith gave a talk on artificial intelligence on Thursday in Silicon Valley. In it, he warned that the U.S. and China are developing generative AI at different rates and that this gap is closing rapidly because of tools like ChatGPT. Also, he talked about the extraction and processing of rare earth minerals, which are crucial parts of modern technology. A luncheon with committee members was attended by Smith and executives from Google, Palantir, and ScaleAI.

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The Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation's Steve Blank, a founding member of the organization, said that lawmakers also had meetings with Stanford University experts. During the talk on Thursday, Blank said in a phone interview that he had stressed the necessity for a more comprehensive public-private partnership plan in the defense sector if the United States was to catch up to China. The bipartisanship and attention he noticed among the in-attendance lawmakers, according to Blank, impressed him.

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"The questions they asked would have made you extremely happy to be an American sitting there," Blank added. "They were really intelligent, to the point, and they were bipartisan. These folks are aware of the problems and are working to make the nation better.

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Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a committee member who represents Silicon Valley, expressed his excitement about the trip to Trade Algo in a phone interview on Tuesday. To better understand how to both regulate and promote cutting-edge technology, Khanna stated that lawmakers should constantly take the time to educate themselves about cutting-edge fields like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and climate technology.

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"Every member of Congress needs to spend a week in Silicon Valley," according to Khanna. "So many areas, including economics, national security, and civic concerns, will be defined by technology, and we need people to be involved in it or at least comprehend it."

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The trip's main goal, according to Khanna and others, was to gather information. Although the discussions would probably influence upcoming decisions and hearings, lawmakers attended the events hoping to gain insight from business leaders on the ground.

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Also, the group was scheduled to meet with venture capitalists on Thursday, including SV Angel, Khosla Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz. Khanna anticipated that the venture capitalists would talk about how the government might "better work with the private sector" in order to stay ahead of China in significant new technology fields.

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According to a source familiar with the committee's preparations, senators were scheduled to discuss cryptocurrencies with Stanford researchers on Friday before heading to Cupertino to meet with Cook at Apple's headquarters.

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Khanna said he expected the business executives to notify the policymakers of any progress they have made in diversifying their supply chains away from China and how they use export earnings from China to invest in the U.S. Regarding the discussion with Cook, Khanna stated that he anticipated Cook would "talk openly about the supply chain difficulties," particularly the challenges and development of diversifying production outside of China.

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Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., claimed in a phone interview on Thursday that she noticed parallels between the difficulties the digital and media sectors in China confront and those faced by the car industry in her home state.

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"Every discussion we've had has related back to Michigan's economy and our capacity to manufacture as a nation," according to Stevens. "As a supporter of manufacturing and someone who recognizes the connections between manufacturing and technology, one of the themes I brought to the committee was: What else do we need to do to encourage and advance industrial policy in the United States of America?" Stevens remarked. She used the passing of the Chips and Science Act as an illustration of how to encourage local semiconductor production.

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In addition to chips, Stevens added, "We want to be competitive in quantum and artificial intelligence. Now, we're looking at other areas relevant to supply chain vulnerabilities and weaknesses that are going to harm our economy."