Warner Bros. Discovery’s production of videos in partnership with Chinese state media to whitewash the Uyghur genocide has inspired a bill to bar the disbursement of federal funds to companies that work with Beijing’s propaganda organs.
Representative Jim Banks (R., Ind.) proposed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defense-policy bill, that would block Pentagon funds from going to any company engaged in a similar partnership.
The House Armed Services Committee approved that amendment on Wednesday evening, advancing it along with the rest of the bill. In a statement to National Review, Banks said that the provision also tackles Chinese censorship of Hollywood.
“Congress needs to act to disentangle Hollywood from the Chinese Communist Party and combat China’s political warfare,” Banks said. “These companies are happy with the status quo. Congress took a big step to break that status quo in the 2023 NDAA by cutting off funding for Hollywood projects that let the CCP censor the script. I’m proud to keep up the fight to stop Hollywood from caving to China.”
The Discovery Channel’s Asia division has a long-standing relationship with China Media Group, a subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Party’s central propaganda department. Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific vice president Vikram Channa sits on a committee that oversees another subsidiary of the central propaganda department.
Earlier this year, China Media Group touted a documentary about the Xinjiang region that it had co-produced with Discovery. That video series focused on cultural topics and seemed to indirectly counter concerns about the widespread use of forced labor by the CCP and Beijing’s policy to stamp out the Islamic faith held by many Uyghurs and members of other ethnic groups in the region.
After Banks wrote to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav condemning the arrangement, the company distanced itself from the partnership, stopping just short of apologizing for its role in co-producing CCP propaganda. The company revealed that China’s CCTV state broadcaster funded the project, which Discovery produced, and that the two entities had joint editorial control over it.
The arrangement fed into broader congressional concern that the Chinese government has exercised some degree of control over America’s entertainment industry.
Warner Bros. Discovery said in the letter to Banks that it would not enter into a similar partnership today. A WBD representative told National Review that the company subsequently contacted the Uyghur Human Rights Project and had a productive meeting with the organization.