What a spectacular PR disaster Disney created for itself by shooting Mulan in the very region where Uighur Muslims are being subjected to a genocide-like assimilation campaign and even thanking police and security units for their help–the same units involved in suppressing the Uighurs. Disney further shot itself in the foot by celebrating the ethnic Han Chinese as they battled the Huns. It’s understood that the Uighurs, Tibetans or Mongols could easily be substituted. All to please Chinese authorities and make loads of money in the world’s second largest movie market.
As relations continue to deteriorate between the United States and China, other American companies may find themselves being placed in equally difficult positions. American semiconductor makers are selling chips being used in China’s Artificial Intelligence and facial recognition systems. They are selling chips being used by the Chinese army and by the Chinese space program.
Other companies such as Cisco have helped the Chinese government build its Great Firewall against outside penetration and presumably continue to supply equipment to that effort. Microsoft, Apple, Intel, Qualcomm and other technology giants are deeply involved in China and even conduct R&D in China. Intel sells more chips in China than it does in the United States. Are American companies selling data management tools in China that will help it manage and sort through the enormous bodies of data that China is stealing?
At it becomes clearer and clearer that the United States and China are engaged in a battle for technological supremacy in the world, all American tech companies are going to face questions about what role they are playing–are they helping China or the United States? What is the profile of their involvement inside the police state that President Xi Jinping has built? Disney may have stumbled in spectacular fashion, but there are more shoes to drop.
