Tensions are rising between China and the United States, and rapidly so. Are US entertainment corporations dependent on China?
Reports that Speaker of the House of the United States, Nancy Pelosi, is planning to stop at Taiwan are producing new and severe threats from China. Due to the massive investments of entertainment companies in the Chinese economy, such a conflict could prompt extreme recalculations in the global marketplace with devastating impact on the corporations that produce leisure opportunities. From the NBA to Disney to almost all of Hollywood, a war between China and the US-backed Taiwan has many on edge worried about a potential global depression.
Let her go to Taiwan. But pray before departure: wish herself a safe journey and wish herself not be defined by history as a sinner who starts a spiral of escalation process expanding military frictions to a large-scale war in the Taiwan Strait. pic.twitter.com/OuLsaAW3OP
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) August 1, 2022
Never mind the fact that Twitter bans some for vague infractions while China openly uses the platform to threaten war and shooting the politician third in line for the presidency.
Here are some of the major concerns out of western corporations:
When Russia invaded Ukraine, many of the major western corporations took a stand and left the country ruled by Moscow. McDonald’s sold all their restaurants. Disney pulled out all their streaming services, movies, channels and shows. Many other companies followed suit. They were standing on principle they said. Now, they’re facing a much larger problem at a much grander scale. Russia’s most stringent ally, China, has threated to actually blow up the plane carrying United States Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D), if she flies to the sovereign nation of Taiwan.
In comparison to Russia, the Chinese influence over western corporations is orders of magnitude in difference. Whereas companies could easily exit the Russian markets with little impact on their bottom lines, a full boycott of China by American and European companies could easily lead to a worldwide depression. Companies like Nike, Gap, Patagonia and more would all cease to have materials to source the production of their goods… not to mention lacking locations to try putting together items from new suppliers. But perhaps no entertainment company would have quite so much to lose as The Walt Disney Company. Not only would the corporation potentially lose all of its entertainment revenues from the Middle Kingdom, but it would also be paralyzed in its options for what to do with its Disney Parks in China. Very easily, Beijing could simply take the parks from the company with zero compensation in return: a multi-billion dollar, instant loss for Disney.
The updated information that Pelosi does, indeed, intend to visit Taiwan may result in serious conflict very soon. Ahead of even this update, British corporations were already working very hard to severe as many ties with China as possible. Meanwhile, many are concerned that divorcing the economies of the west from China will be more complicated than necessary — and it’s plenty complicated enough as is — due to communist cells having been reportedly implanted into western corporations. In 2020, then attorney general Bill Barr concluded that The Walt Disney Company, for example, was greatly compromised due to Communist Party workers being involved in management of the company.
In all likelihood, China is probably not going to start a war or murder a major US politicians. But sabers are being rattled and entertainment companies in bed with the communist regime should be quite worried.
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