Americans are now familiar with the sad spectacle of their own countrymen bowing to Chinese pressure publicly. We see it done by captains of industry, Wall Street's largest firms, the most elite universities, sports heroes, cultural figures, and politicians alike. It has become so common that it is news when someone instead resists the pressure from Chinese communist regime and suffers financially because of it.
The latest example of that is professional basketball player Enes Kanter Freedom, who was recently traded by the Boston Celtics to the Houston Rockets, which then promptly waived him. The Rockets have offered no reason for this move, but it is no secret that the team has a devoted following in and makes a lot of money from China.
"People's willingness to speak out about these issues tends to be related to how much business they have in China.... Everyone understands that the quid pro quo of taking Chinese cash is that you never criticize them." — David Sacks, The Megyn Kelly Show, February 8, 2022.
My latest book, Red Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win, traces these themes.... It is surprising how little attention those chapters have received in mainstream news outlets....
Highlighted are detailed actions and pro-Beijing statements of financial giants such as Larry Fink and Ray Dalio, who run BlackRock and Bridgewater Associates, respectively. An entire chapter catalogs similar kowtowing from Big Tech by Silicon Valley's wealthiest CEOs, including Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cooke, and Bill Gates. From political dynasties in the US and Canada to philanthropists and Harvard professors, from sports stars to movie actors, the Chinese money talks so loudly it drowns out every other sound.
"News conglomerates do not want to cover bad news about China. But it's not because of a grand conspiracy theory. It's simply because they make so much money." — Alex Marlow, editor-in-chief of Breitbart News and author of the book, Breaking the News: Exposing the Establishment Media's Hidden Deals and Secret Corruption.
Even smaller media outlets such as The Atlantic Monthly and Axios aren't immune, [Marlow] notes in his book. Both are owned by Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs's widow, whose fortune came from Apple and Disney, two companies that owe a lot of their wealth to their business activities in China.
"Bloomberg News has to extend its contract every two years, so [Michael Bloomberg] goes over there to kiss the ring." — Alex Marlow, The Drill Down, February 10, 2022
How much longer will our large media outlets ignore the growing threat Chinese influence poses to their core principles of presenting the truth without fear or favor?
As Albert Camus, wrote, "The Welfare of the people... has always been the alibi of tyrants... giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience."
"The CCP is essentially depriving Americans of their free speech rights – not in China,
but on American soil – as a condition of doing business over there." Billionaire tech investor David Sacks recently summed up the state of Communist Chinese intimidation of American business, sports leagues like the NBA, and anyone else with commercial interests in China. Pictured: Sacks speaks at a conference on September 13, 2016 in San Francisco. (Image source: TechCrunch/
Flickr CC by 2.0)
Billionaire tech investor David Sacks recently summed up the present state of Communist Chinese intimidation of American business, sports leagues like the NBA, and anyone else with commercial interests in China. He sees it getting worse, not better.
Appearing on a podcast hosted by former Fox News anchor and NBC talk show host Megyn Kelly, Sacks was asked to address the backlash against his friend, Chamath Palihapitiya, for saying "no one cares" about repression and ethnic cleansing of the Uyghurs by China's communist regime. Sacks told Kelly he accepts his friend's later explanation that his words simply came out wrong. But Sacks's larger response to the question of Chinese intimidation really hit the nail on the head:
"The CCP is essentially depriving Americans of their free speech rights – not in China, but on American soil – as a condition of doing business over there."
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