Jen Psaki: China Is Weaponizing Private Companies To Stifle Free Expression

Wait … what?

Fox Business:

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday indicated the Biden administration was prepared to stand up to China’s efforts to “weaponize” private companies’ dependence on its markets in order to censor free speech.

“American consumers and consumers everywhere deserve to know that their goods or the goods they are buying are not made with forced labor and many companies are standing up for consumers rights,” Psaki said. “The international community in our view should oppose China’s weaponizing of private companies dependence on its markets to stifle free expression and inhibit ethical business practices.”

When it came to specific actions the administration could take to promote ethical business practices and to protect companies, Psaki said the White House can work with the international community and the private sector. …”

White House:

“Q And then, last one on the forced labor in Xinjiang, in China.  Some companies have come under pressure from the Chinese government, and some retailers have actually dropped pledges not to use products made with forced labor from that region.  So, you know, what is the U.S. doing to stop or deter China from making those kind of threats against companies that have resulted in this problem?

MS. PSAKI:  Well, we certainly have been watching this issue closely, as you well know, and we’ve taken our own strong actions in order to prevent China from profiting off of its horrific human rights abuses in Xinjiang and to stop imports of products made with forced labor in China. 

American consumers and consumers everywhere deserve to know that their goods are — that the goods they are buying are not made with forced labor, and many companies are standing up for consumers’ rights.

The international community, in our view, should oppose China’s weaponizing of private companies’ dependence on its markets to stifle free expression and inhibit ethical business practices.  So it is something we are watching closely.

We’ve, of course, taken our own action.  I would expect that State and Commerce will have more to say on this later today.

Q    And just one quick follow-up, though.  It’s — because it seems like you’ve been having this message out there for the first couple months of this administration, but it’s — China only seems more emboldened to threaten these companies.  So what more can be done from the White House to try to deter them from making these threats?

MS. PSAKI:  Well, we can work with our international partners, obviously, as I conveyed, on how we’re going to push back on China’s efforts to weaponize private companies.  And we can convey publicly, as we are now, and of course engage with private sector entities about these efforts. 

But a lot of that action would happen from Commerce and, in some cases, the State Department.  And again, I expect they’ll have more specifics to say later today on this. 

Go ahead, Kaitlan.

China is stifling free expression?

China is weaponizing private companies to stifle free expression?

What do you call what is going on in the New York Times newsroom then?

About Hunter Wallace 12379 Articles
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Occidental Dissent

14 Comments

  1. “China Is Weaponizing Private Companies To Stifle Free Expression”

    Something which The United States’ Government would surely never do…

    • We contract out this activity. It is more efficient to use the power of the “free market” to impose censorship.

  2. “WH Press Secretary Psaki: “We’ve spoken to and [Biden has] spoken to the need for social media platforms to continue to take steps to reduce hate speech.”

    According to Justice Clarence Thomas, the 1st Amendment was designed specifically to defend ‘Hate-Speech’.

  3. ISIS and al Qaeda have already come out and stated China is the enemy.

    Soon Jen and Joe will be telling us China did 911.

  4. These motherfkrs really are too much. And they won’t be satisfied until our whole country is a smoldering pile of garbage.

  5. Shut up Psaki China is based and redpilled! and who are you to complain about human rights abuses?

    Last I checked Biden administration is keeping the Iraq Syrian war going strong and what about Yemen where Biden said “the yemen war has to stop” but he will still support Saudi arabia?! I like the mental gymnastics on that one Uh okay looks like Biden did cut arm sales to SA in February but I mean SA will just buys their weapons from someone else like Russia or turkey now

    • Saudi Arabia has always been a reliable customer for American military hardware. They probably signed some official contract which requires them to buy it. The anti-Zionist Arab states of Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Libya buy their tanks and fighter jets from the former USSR. Under the Shah Iran was also a valuable American client state.

      • The Shah’s Iran even got F-14’s. Pretty sure they’ve run out of parts for them by now, though.

  6. Also notable on the hypocrisy front –

    Re the fake pro-establishment ‘socialism’ of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her ilk – AOC supporting Biden and big donors, against real workers –

    AOC and her views are nicely denounced on no less than the Trostkyite WSWS World Socialist Web Site itself, quoting an interview with AOC showing her slimy power-grubbing side

    AOC denounces pro-worker leftists as ‘bad faith actors’ and ‘class essentialists’, AOC much more interested in ‘multi-racial identity politics’, which even the WSWS Trotskyite Marxists are now denouncing as “doling out privileged positions to corrupt representatives of various racial groups”

    AOC hypocrisy and that of fellow fake ‘socialists’ is traced to the work of Polish-USA Jew Max Schachtman (1904-72), mentor of Michael Harrington and USA ‘Democratic Socialists’, this duo even joining in USA imperialist Vietnam War propaganda

    Fake socialists of course support war-mongering imperialism, now fashionably re-labelled as ‘human rights intervention’

    WSWS Trotskyites says AOC and pals are “gatekeepers of the bourgeois political left, channeling social opposition into the Democratic Party and placing its left opponents beyond the pale”

    https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/26/aoc-m26.html

    • I certainly abhor most of WSWS’s positions. But at least they are far more honest than most. They had a good series of articles about all the “former” intelligence agency employees running for congress as democrats in 2018 and I recall an article criticizing the NYT’s 1619 project.

  7. Press Conference Question: I wish a reporter would ask Biden how his grandchild in Arkansas is doing?

  8. I guess it’s easier to blame the Chinese than the real culprits. I mean, you won’t lose your job, get called antisemitic or lose your chances of getting re-elected if you blame Israel, I mean China.

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