(RepublicanInformer.com)- Senator Marco Rubio made waves recently with a statement regarding U.S. companies and the influence China wields over American public policy.
Speaking with Hugh Hewitt on Friday, Rubio described the way in which many corporations are now beholden to Chinese interests, and will advocate and lobby for policies that are favorable to China.
“For some of these companies around the world, their CEOs are judged on a quarterly basis,” Rubio stated. “If the Chinese kick you out of their economy, that’s gonna be a big hit in your revenue and your shareholders are gonna be unhappy.”
Many American companies have in recent years established a greater presence in China and derive a significant percentage of their revenue from these overseas holdings.
Major U.S. companies like Boeing, Caterpillar, General Motors, Starbucks, Nike, and Ford each have a significant revenue exposure in China. In 2020, General Motors sold more vehicles in China than any other market. Still others are even more dependent on Chinese revenue. Wynn Resorts, owners of the Wynn and Encore casino hotels in Las Vegas, and another in Everett, Massachusetts, receive over 75% of their revenue from China.
It’s numbers like these that give pause to Rubio, who said that China uses these corporations’ dependence on their revenue to make them China’s mouthpiece in Washington.
Rubio said that makes business leaders very reluctant to speak out against actions of the CCP, and much more likely to have their back in matters of policy.
And it’s not just big business that’s affected, Rubio says: “You might be a mid-sized business, but your supply chain depends on you making your product in China because it’s the only place you can make it cheap enough to sell it back here in the United States.” Rubio continued, “And they make it pretty clear to you that unless you do what they’re asking you to do or if you step out of line, they’ll close your factory.”
According to Rubio, CEOs like Apple’s Tim Cook are afraid to speak out on China, particularly on human rights issues, because of the very real risk to its supply chains present in the country.
None of the CEOs of large corporations wants to end up like a few who have spoken up, like the GM of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey, who was denounced by his own league and forced to retract a statement in support of democratic protesters in Hong Kong.AG
Just last year, former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr took tech companies to task for acquiescing to China’s demands, calling them “pawns of Chinese influence.”
