[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 96 (Thursday, May 21, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2590-S2591]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CRUZ:
  S. 3835. A bill to prohibit the use of funds for the production of 
films by United States companies that alter content for screening in 
the People's Republic of China, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
  Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the single most 
dangerous geopolitical threat that America faces now and through the 
next century--China.
  We are in the midst of a pandemic that has infected over 5 million 
people and has claimed the lives of over 300,000 people worldwide. In 
the United States alone, the pandemic has infected over 1.5 million 
people and has claimed over 93,000 lives.
  The coronavirus pandemic has shattered the lives of husbands and 
wives, daughters, sons, granddaughters, grandsons, brothers, sisters, 
nieces, nephews who have lost loved ones to COVID-19.
  It has also shattered the lives of those who have lost their jobs, 
their livelihoods, because of this disease.
  Thirty-eight million Americans are now out of work. The unemployment 
rate is at the highest it has ever been since the Great Depression, and 
entire industries are on the brink of collapse. Just 4 months ago, when 
the economy was booming, that was unthinkable.
  Where did this pandemic start? In China. Whether it began at the 
Huanan wet market, a barbaric breeding ground for disease, where snakes 
and turtles and puppies and kittens and bats and other wildlife and 
farm animals are killed and sold, or whether it began due to 
substandard safety protocols at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where 
research into coronavirus was being conducted and specifically 
coronavirus from bats, we don't yet know.
  Here is what we do know: Not only did the coronavirus outbreak start 
in China, the Chinese Communist Government did everything it could to 
cover up the severity of the outbreak, from lying about the origin of 
the virus to how it is transmitted, to destroying evidence, to 
silencing the brave whistleblower doctors and scientists and 
journalists and activists who tried to warn the world and prevent a 
global pandemic.
  It has been reported recently that between January 1 and April 4, the 
Chinese Government charged 484 people with crimes because of comments 
they made about the coronavirus pandemic.
  In Wuhan, eight doctors who sounded the alarm about coronavirus in 
December were accused of spreading lies, arrested, and forced to sign 
documents claiming that they had made false statements that ``disturbed 
the public order.''
  In reality, they were telling the truth. They were warning us.
  One of those doctors, Dr. Ai Fen, has been missing since late March. 
Another, Dr. Li Wenliang, has since died from the coronavirus. Dr. Li 
Wenliang's wife was pregnant with the couple's second child when he 
died.
  And it is not just Chinese doctors who are paying the price for 
telling the truth; journalists and activists who courageously spoke up 
are disappearing too.
  Xu Zhangrun, a Chinese law professor who spoke out about the Chinese 
Government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak and criticized 
Chinese President Xi, has been missing since February.
  Chen Qiushi, a Chinese lawyer and journalist who went to Wuhan to 
report on what was happening there, has been missing since February 6. 
Fang Bin, a Wuhan businessman and journalist who reported on the number 
of bodies piling up outside a Wuhan hospital has been missing since 
February 9. Li Zehua, a journalist who quit his job as a broadcaster 
for the Chinese Communist Party's TV station so he could report on what 
was happening in Wuhan, went missing for 28 days and then was allowed 
to reappear in public only after he praised the government's policy. 
Ren Zhiqiang, a real estate tycoon, who had been publicly critical of 
President Xi's handling of the coronavirus crisis, has been missing 
since March 12. And Xu Zhiyong, a civil rights lawyer and a legal 
scholar who criticized President Xi on social media for his handling of 
the coronavirus crisis, has been on house arrest since February 13.
  If the Chinese Government had acted responsibly and sought the advice 
of public health professionals instead of silencing them, there is a 
very real possibility the coronavirus could have been contained as a 
regional outbreak. Instead, we are now dealing with a deadly global 
pandemic.
  These brave men and women are just the latest targets of the Chinese 
Communist Government's relentless attacks on truth-tellers, on freedom 
fighters, and on religious and ethnic minorities. The Chinese 
Government is a 1984-style dystopian state, and it has tracked and 
imprisoned millions of Uyghurs and other religious minorities. The 
Chinese Government is constantly tracking the movements of millions of 
people using cutting-edge biotechnology and artificial intelligence, 
and it has put 1 million Uyghurs, right now, into concentration camps.
  In 2017, I led a bipartisan resolution in this body condemning the 
Chinese Communist Party's persecution of religious minorities, 
particularly Buddhist Tibetans. Last year, I introduced legislation and 
urged the Trump administration to blacklist Chinese companies that are 
aiding the Chinese Government in its persecution of the Uyghurs. The 
administration implemented the recommendations in my legislation, and 
as a result those companies are now banned from acquiring American 
goods. That is a step in the right direction.
  We have known that China's surveillance state and censorship 
practices are a great threat to human rights, but what the pandemic has 
shown us is that China's surveillance state and censorship is also a 
great threat to our national security and to public health. Had those 
doctors, journalists, and activists who were trying to tell the

[[Page S2591]]

truth--desperately trying to warn the world--had they been allowed to 
speak, the coronavirus outbreak might have been stopped in its tracks. 
We may not have had to deal with this devastating pandemic that has 
claimed the lives and the livelihoods of men and women all over the 
world.
  That is why, today, I am introducing legislation to sanction Chinese 
officials who helped censor political speech or suppress the 
dissemination of medical information by citizens of China. This 
legislation would impose visa bans and asset blocks on those who punish 
or censor Chinese citizens for reporting accurate information about a 
disease or a pathogen and hopefully will help prevent something like 
this from ever happening again in China.
  We need to be vigilant and to act where we can to thwart the Chinese 
Government's attempts to twist the truth, to censor, and to silence 
within China, but we also need to be vigilant about the Chinese 
Government's attempts to censor and silence elsewhere, including in our 
own Nation.
  In the United States, the Chinese Government attempts to spread 
propaganda by two ways: by leveraging their enormous market access to 
coerce Americans into self-censorship, especially to Hollywood and 
sports teams that stand to make billions of dollars in China, and by 
simply purchasing access to our cultural and educational centers. With 
both levers, Chinese officials have one objective: to shape what 
Americans see, hear, and ultimately think.
  China has the world's second largest film market, second only the 
United States, and it does around $8 billion in box office revenues per 
year. The Chinese film market is comprised of Chinese films, but they 
also make sure to allow a few dozen American films into their market 
every year. The number is deliberately kept low, and in exchange for 
access, American film companies submit their films to China's censors 
who often force them to change those films. American companies have 
learned this fact, and they will often change the films even in advance 
of submitting.
  As a result, they control not just what audiences see in China but 
also what Americans see. The Chinese Government's censorship office 
seeks to edit anything to do with Tibet, with Taiwan, with Tiananmen 
Square, with human rights, with democracy, with religion, or with any 
criticism of communism, particularly the Chinese Communist Party. 
Recently, the Chinese Government has succeeded in forcing changes to 
movies such as ``Top Gun,'' the sequel; such as ``Doctor Strange''; 
such as ``Skyfall''; such as the remake of ``Red Dawn.'' ``Pixels,'' 
``Looper,'' ``Bohemian Rhapsody'' all were movies that were changed.
  In ``Bohemian Rhapsody,'' the Chinese Communist Party edited out 
references to the fact that Freddy Mercury was gay. In ``Doctor 
Strange,'' they changed the Ancient One's character from Tibetan, as 
portrayed in the comic book, to Celtic. And in the ``Top Gun'' sequel 
that is set to come out later this year, the Taiwanese and Japanese 
flag on the back of Maverick's jacket were removed to appease the 
Chinese Communist Party.
  Think about that for a second. What message does it send that 
``Maverick,'' an American icon, is apparently afraid of Chinese 
Communists. That is ridiculous.
  That is why, today, I am introducing the SCRIPT Act, which would cut 
off Hollywood studios from the assistance they receive from the U.S. 
Government if those films censor their films for screening in China. It 
is common practice for major Hollywood films to contract with the 
Pentagon to use jets and tanks and to film on bases and aircraft 
carriers.
  The SCRIPT Act should be a wake-up call for Hollywood. Studios would 
be forced to choose between the assistance from the Federal Government 
or the money they want from China.
  The second way the Chinese Government attempts to spread propaganda 
is by purchasing access to our cultural and educational centers. The 
Chinese Government spends billions of dollars to shape what the next 
generation of Americans know and think about China. They have a 
pervasive presence in our K-12 education and in our colleges and 
universities, especially through Confucius Institutes and by directly 
financing departments and centers.
  In the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, I 
authored bipartisan legislation prohibiting the Department of Defense 
from funding universities when the money could go to Confucius 
Institutes. As a result, over a dozen Confucius Institutes have closed.
  We need to stand up and deal directly with the threat China poses. 
China bears direct responsibility and direct culpability for the over 
300,000 people who have died worldwide and for the trillions in 
economic livelihoods that have been destroyed.
  Today, I introduce three pieces of legislation to directly address 
Chinese censorship and their responsibility for this pandemic, and we, 
as a body, as a bipartisan body, need to stand and stand strong 
protecting U.S. national security, protecting the lives of Americans, 
and ensuring accountability; that the Chinese Communist Party has 
accountability for their censorship, their hiding of the facts of this 
pandemic, and the lives that have been lost as a result of their 
coverup.
                                 ______