U.S. Attorney General William Barr criticized Hollywood film studios and major technology companies, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, for accommodating the Chinese Communist Party in pursuit of access to the Chinese market.
He warned that China’s objective was not to become another member of the advanced economies, but to replace them.

July 20, 2020
This article was originally published on July 20, 2020, and introduced a report written by Etsunari Kurose and published in the Sankei Shimbun on July 18, 2020.
William Barr, then the Attorney General of the United States, criticized the American film industry and major technology companies for cooperating with the Chinese Communist Party and accepting censorship or information controls in order to protect their access to the Chinese market.
Barr warned that China did not merely seek to stand alongside the world’s advanced economies.
Its objective, he said, was to replace them and obtain global leadership in technology, economics, and information.
The following is a faithful English translation of the Japanese article originally published on July 20, 2020.
July 20, 2020
China’s aim is not to become a member of the advanced economies, but “to replace these countries,” he declared.
The following is from an article published in the Sankei Shimbun on July 18 under the headline, “‘U.S. Film and IT Industries Are Closely Tied to China’: Attorney General Criticizes Them and Urges Companies to Coordinate on China.”
Washington—Etsunari Kurose
U.S. Attorney General William Barr delivered a speech before business representatives in the Midwestern state of Michigan on July 16.
He criticized the American film industry and major technology companies for being conscious of the Chinese market and “actively cooperating with the Chinese Communist Party.”
He called upon American companies to work together to prevent China from swallowing up the global market.
Barr pointed out that Hollywood film studios were imposing self-censorship on scripts and visual depictions in order to obtain permission to screen their films in China.
In the 2013 zombie film World War Z, starring Brad Pitt, the original story contained a depiction in which the virus that transformed people into zombies had originated in China.
Barr said that Paramount Pictures instructed the producers to remove this element because the company wanted to secure distribution of the film in China.
Barr also cited the case of Apple removing a news application that had been providing detailed reports about the protest movement in Hong Kong after receiving a request from the Chinese government.
He also condemned Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, stating that they had “close cooperative relationships with the Chinese Communist Party regime.”
Barr emphasized that “China is mobilizing its entire government and society to conduct an aggressive and carefully planned ‘economic blitzkrieg’ in order to overtake the United States and become the world’s leading technological superpower.”
China’s objective, he declared, was not to become a member of the advanced economies, but “to replace these countries.”
Barr further warned that “the Chinese Communist Party is attempting to expand its influence throughout the world, including within the American homeland.”
He told American companies that adopting an accommodating approach toward the Chinese Communist Party might bring short-term rewards, but that they would ultimately be taken over by China.
“To preserve a world of freedom and prosperity, the free world must respond with a whole-of-society effort,” he said, strongly urging cooperation in policies toward China.