By Aruna Viswanatha and William Mauldin 

Attorney General William Barr took aim at a range of American companies and industries for what he described as a willingness to accede to authoritarian demands from the Chinese government, as the Trump administration has stepped up its rhetoric and actions countering Beijing's recent activities.

In a speech Thursday in Michigan, Mr. Barr criticized the Hollywood entertainment industry and Walt Disney Co. as well as tech giants including Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Apple Inc., saying they are "all too willing to collaborate" with the Chinese Communist Party.

In remarks before an audience of members of the business and university communities at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, Mr. Barr warned executives to be careful of pushing policies at the behest of Chinese authorities, which he said could require registration under a U.S. lobbying law.

"America's corporate leaders might not think of themselves as lobbyists, " Mr. Barr said, telling them: "But you should be alert to how you might be used, and how your efforts on behalf of a foreign company or government could implicate the Foreign Agents Registration Act," which requires lobbyists for foreign governments or companies to register such work with the Justice Department.

Many large U.S. companies see much of their growth coming from China, so it is unclear to what degree warnings from the administration or the risk of bad publicity will change their calculus.

"The ultimate ambition of China's rulers isn't to trade with the United States. It is to raid the United States," Mr. Barr said, adding: "If you are an American business leader, appeasing the PRC may bring short-term rewards. But in the end, the PRC's goal is to replace you," referring to the People's Republic of China.

A spokesman for Apple referred to previous statements in which the company had said it was "convinced the best way we can continue to promote openness is to remain engaged even where we may disagree with a country's laws."

A spokeswoman for Google, whose search engine is blocked in China, declined to comment.

A representative for Disney, which previously said the company has "always been fully aware of the laws and regulations in whatever country we operate in, and always adhere to them," couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The Trump administration has recently targeted a range of Chinese actions, including the country's claims of maritime rights in much of the South China Sea. This week, the Trump administration came out publicly in opposition to those assertions, a move that supports Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries in the region that have claims there. A U.S. guided-missile destroyer on Tuesday sailed by the Spratly Islands, claimed by China and other countries, in a "freedom of navigation" operation.

Late Tuesday, Mr. Trump used a Rose Garden press conference to announce he had signed legislation allowing for sanctions against people and entities linked to Beijing's new security law on Hong Kong. That night the White House released an executive order aimed at phasing out privileges Hong Kong has enjoyed over mainland China in U.S. law.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday the U.S. would decline to issue travel visas to unspecified executives of Chinese technology firms, including Huawei Technologies, that "provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses." Earlier this month, four government departments released a joint memo warning American firms that they risk violating U.S. sanctions or reputational damage if their supply chains or customers are connected with China's Xinjiang region, where academic researchers say more than a million Uighur Muslim minorities have been detained.

In his Thursday remarks, Mr. Barr specifically criticized technology companies for removing apps at the request of the Chinese government, including Apple's removal of the news outlet Quartz's app, after it had covered the Hong Kong democracy protests. Mr. Barr also criticized Disney for giving Chinese government officials a role in managing its Shanghai theme park.

In other recent speeches, the FBI director, Christopher Wray, and Mr. Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, have laid out what they view as the threats emanating from China in some of the starkest terms yet.

Americans are "the victims of what amounts to Chinese theft on a scale so massive that it represents one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history," Mr. Wray said, speaking at the conservative Hudson Institute last week. He also disclosed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is opening a new China-related counterintelligence case every 10 hours, with nearly 2,500 such cases under way.

"At this very moment, China is working to compromise American health care organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and academic institutions conducting essential Covid-19 research," Mr. Wray said.

The Justice Department and the FBI have in particular been focused on China's efforts at American universities to fund scientists to essentially moonlight at Chinese universities and set up research projects parallel to those they are conducting in the U.S. with American government funding including the National Institutes of Health.

Last week, for example, the FBI arrested an Ohio State University rheumatology professor on charges of grant fraud and making false statements for allegedly not disclosing his Chinese government funding to the NIH, which awarded him more than $4 million in funding, according to the criminal complaint filed against him. The professor was arrested in Alaska as he was preparing to board a charter flight to China.

In May, researchers from the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Arkansas were charged in similar cases.

Write to Aruna Viswanatha at Aruna.Viswanatha@wsj.com and William Mauldin at william.mauldin@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 16, 2020 13:50 ET (17:50 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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