Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) joined PBS’ Firing Line Friday to discuss how the U.S. should respond to growing threats from China and warned U.S. companies such as Disney, Apple, and the NBA that there will be a reckoning over business deals with the genocidal communist government.
Gallagher, the chair of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said the threats America faces from the Communist Chinese is an “existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century.”
During his March 10 interview, Gallagher said he feels that too many Americans see China as a “distant threat” or merely an economic threat and not exactly an immediate danger, and his committee is tasked with highlighting the dangers that China poses to bring more people up to speed on the issues.
Toward the tail of the interview, Gallagher warned American companies that their relationship with China is not moderating the CCP’s aggressive behavior and is instead contributing to China’s genocide against its Uyghur minorities.
The Rep. added that China intends to export its slave labor camp system outside its own borders.
Firing Line host Margaret Hoover reminded Gallagher of his words on Fox News in July of 2020, when he said, “I think we need to subpoena the CEOs of Apple, Hollywood executives, and the NBA just to get a better understanding for the American people about how China is leveraging its economic power to coerce American citizens and craft certain narratives that are really damaging around the world.”
Asked to elaborate on that point, Gallagher had a sensible and serious answer about how we need to hold American companies like Disney, Apple, and the NBA accountable for their adherence to American values.
“We saw this with Hong Kong play out — and the NBA in particular — and the concern seemed to be, ‘Well, let’s not compromise the business that we have in China.’ That is troubling for a lot of Americans,” Gallagher insisted.
“We want American companies to act like American companies in support of American values,” he continued. “And if you remember, the protesters that were on the street in Hong Kong as the CCP was taking over were in many cases waving American flags. They were looking to us for leadership.”
“I get it. I don’t begrudge the effort from major American companies to make money all around the world. And I understand that China is this massive market,” Gallagher explained. “But we don’t want to allow the CCP to use access to their market as a weapon to silence Americans and undermine American values.”
“So, I think we’ll have a productive conversation with Disney, with the NBA, with Apple — I genuinely want to understand how they think about doing business in China. We have to have that conversation, difficult though it may be at times,” he concluded.
Earlier in the interview, Gallagher also noted that China’s threat is far different than that of the Soviet Union.
“We never had to contemplate a form of selective economic decoupling with the Soviet Union because our economies didn’t really interact,” Gallagher said. “But because we’ve been pursing China’s integration into the global economy, we’re now trying to figure out how do we reduce our dependency on Chinese manufacturing, how do we ensure that American dollars aren’t subsidizing the CCP’s military modernization, or its genocidal ambitions? And that is a very difficult thing to do given how exposed we are economically and financially.”
Gallagher also spoke on the dangers of TikTok, and insisted that the U.S. should commit to defending Taiwan against Chinese aggression.
Watch the entire interview at PBS Firing Line.
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