U.S. lawmakers to meet with Apple, Disney CEOs to discuss China

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers are slated to meet with the CEOs of Apple, Disney and Microsoft in California this week to discuss challenges and opportunities for American businesses that operate in China, CBS News has learned. 

The House members attending the meetings are part of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). All were invited, but about 10 to 12 are able to make it, according to Rep. Ro Khanna of California, a leading Democrat whose district includes Silicon Valley.

Khanna, who will be among those attending the meetings, told CBS News Wednesday that the topics of discussion will include how U.S companies can maintain a competitive edge with China while shifting product manufacturing back to the U.S. 

“I would like to see more of our electronic production come here to the United States,” Khanna told CBS News. “For display screens, for micro-electronics, for semiconductors, for the component parts of our smartphones, and that is a conversation we’re going to have. How do we do it today? What do they need from the United States government to be able to do it?”

This also comes after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a bipartisan group of congressional members met Wednesday in California with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen. 

Khanna said he hopes the conversations with the likes of Disney CEO Bob Iger and Apple CEO Tim Cook will lead to potential policy proposals or topics for future hearings. He added that lawmakers will also discuss exports of U.S. products to China, and how businesses and the federal government can safeguard intellectual property. 

“That’s the most important thing, not allowing sensitive technology to get to China,” Khanna said.

“We need to understand that China is a big market for some of our experts, and so how do we balance keeping it an export market while preventing intellectual property theft and reducing the trade deficit,” Khanna said. 

During the committee’s first hearing in February, Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin) said the U.S faces an “ideological, technological, economic, and military threat” from China. Speaking on “Face the Nation” in February, he said that lawmakers “can have a productive conversation with companies that have substantial business interests in China.”

“We want to make sure that the power of the Chinese economy is not seducing certain companies into betraying American values,” Gallagher said. 

Khanna said for him those values are finding ways to increase exports to China while shifting production to the U.S. or allied countries. He also said that companies need to make sure they’re not using “slave labor” in China.

In addition to meeting with the CEOs of Disney, Apple, and Microsoft, the lawmakers are also meeting with venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Vinod Khosla later this week in Silicon Valley. 

The American entertainment and technology sector relies heavily on China’s consumer and labor market. Apple, for example, raked in nearly $24 billion in sales in China last year. Cook recently traveled to Beijing to reaffirm its longstanding partnership with China. 

Tensions between China and the U.S. in the business sector have been escalating for months. In November the federal government banned the sale of communications devices made by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE, citing an “unacceptable risk” to national security. 

In a statement to CBS News, Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa, a member of the committee who is also attending the meetings, said “the CCP uses technology as a weapon, both to oppress its own people, and to spy on Americans.”

“We cannot allow the CCP to realize their techno-authoritarian ambitions, including their “Made in China 2025″ plan that, through aggressive intellectual property theft, aims to replace American technology and services on a global scale,” Hinson said, adding that the committee will work to “collect ideas and pursue bipartisan solutions.”

The meetings with high profile business executives come days after the House Committee on Energy and Commerce grilled TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew over that company’s ties to China and its handling of user data. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri has been attempting to fast-track a bill that would ban TikTok in the U.S., but his proposal was recently blocked by members of his own party. 

Khanna said lawmakers will also discuss exports of U.S. products to China and how businesses and the federal government can safeguard intellectual property. 

“That’s the most important thing, not allowing sensitive technology to get to China,” Khanna said.

“We need to understand that China is a big market for some of our experts and so how do we balance keeping it an export market while preventing intellectual property theft and reducing the trade deficit,” Khanna added. 

He also said that U.S. businesses need to uphold American values and ensure that they are not using enslaved labor, or taking advantage of the Uyghurs, a persecuted Muslim minority group that is often forced into Chinese labor camps.