Cotton: Wall Street CEOs are effectively 'lobbyists for communist China'

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Cotton: US businesses 'effectively lobbyists for communist China'

American corporations must recognize Beijing as threat to the U.S., Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., tells 'The Story'

Top American business leaders have effectively become "lobbyists for communist China," selfishly advocating for the same foreign power that seeks to undermine the United States and its democratic system, Sen. Tom Cotton said Tuesday.

"A lot of these Democrats have been in bed with China and a lot of them have been there for a very long time," Cotton, R-Ark., told "The Story" on Tuesday. "But unfortunately, a lot of America's corporate leaders have been as well."

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Cotton made the comment a day after "Tucker Carlson Tonight" aired a recorded lecture that showed a Chinese academic explaining how Beijing had “people at the top of America’s core inner circle of power and influence." The expert spoke optimistically about China’s ability to thrive under a Biden administration and said Beijing was given "help" from business leaders on Wall Street.

"There was reporting, when a Chinese trade negotiator came to America last year, they met at the Chamber of Commerce with a bunch of business executives and asked them to lobby the president and lobby Congress on China's behalf," Cotton said.

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"Sadly, that's been the case now for 20 or 30 years, that many American businesses are effectively lobbyists for communist China. That needs to stop," Cotton continued. "They need to recognize that America should come first, not their profits."

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"The Story" host Martha MacCallum commented that "Americans need a very realistic look" at the U.S.-China relationship "and what we have sacrificed for it" as a country. 

"No matter what the titans of industry may think, China is our adversary," Cotton agreed, "ripping us off and stealing our jobs and taking our factories and threatening our allies and interests in the Western Pacific for 30 years."

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Cotton, a member of the Senate Intelligence Commitee, accused politicians in Washington of looking the other way because China "has cultivated American business to such a great degree.

"The time for that has got to stop,"  Cotton said. "These corporate CEOs need to focus on bringing those jobs back to America, or at least getting them out of China. Because as long as you’re operating in China, you’re susceptible to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party."