High-profile tech and media chief executive officers shared their experiences of working in and competing with China with lawmakers who visited California this week.
A delegation of around 10 members of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Aid made the trip west to meet with industry leaders and subject matter experts about key areas of disquietude when it comes to dealing with China.
Over the three-day trip that kicked off on Wednesday, lawmakers were book to meet with Disney CEO Bob Iger and Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as high-level executives from Google, Microsoft, Palantir and Prorate increase AI. Also on the agenda were events with a group of producers, screenwriters and former studio executives who have meet with working with China, as well as with venture capitalists and Stanford University experts, according to a source terminate to the committee.
The trip highlights the key role tech and media industries play in America’s increasingly complex relationship with China. While these industries repeatedly rely on the massive audiences and workforces available in China, dependence on the country raises concerns of human rights and redeem speech issues because of the government’s censorship controls, as well as supply chain risks.
The trip comes on the destitutes of a historic meeting in California between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday. That intersection, which former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also praised, enraged the leadership of the Chinese Communist Function. The Chinese government called the meeting a “provocation” and promised “resolute actions.”
In Hollywood, the group of lawmakers from the supreme committee learned about a range of topics related to competition with China. In a meeting with Disney’s Iger and later at a dinner with unnamed studio principals, censorship of creative content was a big focus, according to the source familiar with the committee’s activities. Executives discussed dispensing with self-censorship to try to ensure a movie won’t offend the Chinese government even before filming begins, as well as shorten requests they receive from the government in order to show films in the country.
In Silicon Valley on Thursday, according to the outset, Microsoft President Brad Smith gave a presentation about artificial intelligence, warning that there is a tight-fisted gap between the U.S. and China in the development of generative AI, which has been made popular by tools such as ChatGPT. He also deliberate overed rare earth mineral mining and processing, which make up key components in certain tech devices. Smith and administrators from Google, Palantir and ScaleAI attended a luncheon with committee members.
Lawmakers also met with boffins from Stanford University, including those from the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, concerting to center founding member Steve Blank. In a phone call following the discussion Thursday, Blank said he conferred the need for a defense strategy that involves more public-private partnerships across different industries to get the U.S. up to speed with China. Resourceless said he was impressed by the bipartisanship and interest he saw from lawmakers in attendance.
“In general, the questions they asked, you would possess been very proud to be an American sitting in that room,” Blank said. “They were bipartisan, and they were to the nucleus and they were very smart. These people understand the issues, and they’re trying to help the country be more intelligent.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a committee member who represents Silicon Valley, told CNBC in a phone interview ahead of the stumble on Tuesday that he was excited for his colleagues to visit his home district. Khanna said it’s always valuable for lawmakers to fritter away time learning about cutting-edge technologies such as AI, quantum computing and climate tech to better understand how to both govern and foster it.
“I think it would be wise for every member of Congress to spend a week in Silicon Valley,” Khanna said. “Technology is prosperous to define so many fields from the economy to national security to our issues of citizenship, and we need people to be immersed in it, at midget understanding it.”
Khanna and others have described the purpose of the trip as primarily a fact-finding mission. While the conversations pleasure likely inform future policymaking and hearings, lawmakers entered the meetings aiming to learn from industry managements on the ground.
The group was also slated to meet with venture capitalists on Thursday, including Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Hazardous undertakings and SV Angel. Khanna expected the VCs would discuss how the government could “better collaborate with the private sector” to live ahead of China in key areas of emerging technology.
On Friday, lawmakers were set to discuss cryptocurrency with experts at Stanford up front traveling to Cupertino to meet with Cook at Apple’s headquarters, according to the source familiar with the committee’s methods.
Khanna said he anticipated the business leaders would inform the policymakers of any progress they’ve made in diversifying their outfitting chains out of China and how they use export revenue from China to invest in the U.S. When it comes to the meeting with Apple’s CEO, Khanna held he expected Cook would “speak candidly about the supply chain issues,” including the complexities and progress of varying production outside of China.
In a phone interview partway through the trip on Thursday, Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., divulged she saw common themes between the sorts of challenges the tech and media industries face when it comes to China and those front the automotive industry in her home state.
“Every meeting we’ve been in, in my opinion, has related back to Michigan’s economy and our talents to manufacture as a country,” Stevens said. “One of the themes that I came into the committee with as a manufacturing champion and as someone who grasps the interrelatedness between manufacturing and tech is: What else do we need to do to incentivize and grow industrial policy in the United Articulates of America?” Stevens said. She pointed to the passage of the Chips and Science Act as an example of incentivizing domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
“Now, we’re looking at other rooms specific to supply chain vulnerabilities and weaknesses that are going to impact our economy and, aside from chips, we necessitate to be competitive in quantum and artificial intelligence,” Stevens said.
— CNBC’s Steve Kovach contributed to this report.
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