2y ago

Apple’s China ties under Congressional scrutiny after Jon Stewart cancellation

arstechnica.com

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2y ago

Apple’s China ties under Congressional scrutiny after Jon Stewart cancellation

arstechnica.com /tech-policy/2023/11/apples-china-ties-under-congressional-scrutiny-after-jon-stewart-cancellation/

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2y ago

Apple’s China ties under Congressional scrutiny after Jon Stewart cancellation | Lawmakers demand that Apple commit to not censoring content critical of China.

arstechnica.com /tech-policy/2023/11/apples-china-ties-under-congressional-scrutiny-after-jon-stewart-cancellation/

77 comments

Oh yes the Chinese Communist Party, the cake and eat it too party, where it somehow is able to access global markets and benefit from international trade rules, freely able to meddle in international affairs while embellishing its own interests.
It's mind blowing how the desperation of late stage capitalism allows the CCP to operate within these frameworks.
- In this specific case, Apple axed the show because Stewart was going to talk about China's less savory behavior.
  The show had been announced to have a third season, and then suddenly when Stewart was gearing up to tackle some of the issues around China, Stewart was instantly fired.
  And this isn't the first time China had demanded the firing, or public apology, of a prominent American who is even slightly critical of their government.
  https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/hollywood-corporations-apologize-to-china
  https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-brief-history-of-corporate-apologies-to-china-2019-10-09
  
  Remember when John Cena had to apologize to China for saying Taiwan was a country? It was about that time when I started refering to the mainland as West Taiwan.
- In the Capitalist religion the magic phrase that prevents all moral criticism of an action is "it's just business."
  
  This guy gets it.
  Businesses didn't start pretending to care about civil rights until it was profitable.
- Seriously, people need to keep this in their mind at all times. Every single publicly traded company in the world would happily throw a bus full of children into a volcano if it got them a fraction of a point in next quarter's numbers.
- Sounds like you described every superpower.
- This is an amateur take a best, but a strong unified China has historically always been the economic power house of the world. They're so big they can trade with everyone, and since everyone wants to trade with them, everyone has an interest in not starting conflicts. When china prospers it's usually a pretty good time for the wold. I, for one, welcome our Chinese overlords.
- I'm confused, you use the term late stage capitalism, but you don't see that China is clearly not the worst offender of meddling in intl. affairs to suit their own interests. Like, America has even more access to global markets than China does, and also meddles way harder. Literally overthrowing governments, rewriting laws, or just straight up bombing to dust levels of meddling.
  
  Ah yes, the ol' "but america worse" argument.
I’d be more impressed if Congress was under scrutiny for their ties to China. And Russia. And Saudi Arabia.
- Brb investigating the public toilet for poop stains lol
I'm just surprised it was the Republicans to back Stewart up.
- There's an aspect to Jon they like.. Or at least use to their own advantage.
  Jon tends to be pretty hard on China. Remember the controversy over his off-the-cuff comments as Colbert's guest about covid and China?
China makes the hardware, I thought this was common knowledge. Of course they have Apple by the balls
- It's not the manufacturing that Apple is scared of losing, it's the Chinese market itself. There's over a billion people in China and Apple makes a lot of money selling them Phones and iPads.
- Apple manufacturing moved a lot out of China. China still has a lot of the raw materials they need, and in quantities they need them, but recently Apple knows it needs to be faborable to them especially right now, if for nothing else to preserve the Chinese market share they currently have and try and keep relationships amicable post manufacturing move.
Free market go brrrrrr
- There's no such thing as a few market, never was. they fooled you
  
  Not anymore.
How do lawmakers demand something that isn't a law?
- Anyone can demand anything
  
  I demand you take that back!
- They can request anyone to show up and speak about an issue, doesn’t mean anyone is required to answer them
- They use the 'demand' rhetoric to gauge support for an idea, analyse the result, and if profitable draft and pass a bill to change the thing that isn't a law into a law.
The bigger story to me is that there is a House Select Committee on competition with the Chinese communist party.
- I would hope China has an equivalent. Competition like this in science and arts only elevates humanity. It's military competition we have to be careful of.
  
  Builds bigger phallus shaped projectile, it's a building bro, it's even got beds and election hatches lol
- Oh no. How could anyone have so blatant an announcement of competition?! Hahaha
  
  We don’t have one for Chad?
Cook must have a CCP handler sitting next to him at all times, handing out approval or disapproval from Emperor Xi
- Imagine translating while someone's busy farting in the background
This would be a bigger deal if anyone had actually watched the first 2 seasons.
- If you really want to get serious about Chinese interference, this is a discouraging sign. An example of doing the bare minimum for the lowest of stakes.
  Maybe start with Tik Tok and go from there?
- Honestly, it’s not even about the show - it’s the fact that Apple, more or less, is basically censoring stuff that badmouths China.
  If Apple can do it to somebody like Jon Stewart, then what other companies are willing to do this - or even already have done?
  
  Youtube has a well established history of doing it. Pre-Elon Twitter did it quite a bit and X (Elon Twitter) does even more of it.
  Western Media has been bent and twisted for years by Pro-China propaganda and Pro-China censorship.
  
  I get that China interference is a big deal, but actually dealing with it means getting serious and banning Tik Tok to start.
  This is the smallest of potatoes. An excuse to make noise without doing anything.
- As an aside, your name is weirdly relevant. I read it and thought for a second that you made the account specifically for this comment, but nope, it seems to be a coincidence.
  
  lol. Nah, someone told me not to make my username Tim.

77 comments