Jake Tapper put Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the NBA on blast during CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday for continuing business with China without question despite the human rights abuses by Xi Jinping’s administration.
The anchor called on American businesses to follow the example of the Women’s Tennis Association, which canceled events it was scheduled to hold in China after tennis player Peng Shuai accused former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexually assaulting her.
He contrasted this with the NBA continuing to hold events in the China while the International Olympic Committee drives forward on plans to hold the Beijing Winter Olympics in February even though officials with the IOC have said they have been in contact with Shuai.
And as for Hollywood, Tapper leveled particular criticism at Disney over its decision to film its recent remake of “Mulan” in the province of Xinjiang, where over a million Uyghur Muslims have been placed in internment camps by the government. More recently, Disney has pulled an episode of “The Simpsons” that takes place in Beijing from Disney+ in Hong Kong and in which a joke is made about China’s efforts to censor any record of the 1989 protests in Tianamen Square.
“The millionaires and billionaires of Hollywood and the NBA and the IOC and Wall Street are all so eager for Chinese cash, they’re pretending none of this is happening,” Tapper said. “There is no amount of money that can buy enough soap to wash that blood off their hands.”
Watch Tapper’s full monologue via CAIR in the clip above.