Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio, a story
Speaker 1: of the Bloomberg Today as well about US Treasury Secretary
Speaker 1: Janet Yellen expressing doubts about last year's trade deal with China,
Speaker 1: the first clear statement from the body administration detailing it's
Speaker 1: thinking about the future of the agreement between the world's
Speaker 1: two largest economies. That was something we talked about with
Speaker 1: Andy Brown and Bloomberg New Economy earlier. That's on his
Speaker 1: radar as well. The relationship between the two continues to
Speaker 1: be complicated yet inextricably linked. Someone with a keen perspective
Speaker 1: on all of us and back with us, as Chris Fenton,
Speaker 1: trustee of the US Asia Institute, author of Feeding the Dragon,
Speaker 1: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma facing Hollywood, the NBA and
Speaker 1: American Business epook out last year. He joins us on
Speaker 1: the phone in New York City. Hey, Chris, good to
Speaker 1: have you back with us. How are you, Carol? Always
Speaker 1: a pleasure and always a lot to talk about when
Speaker 1: it comes to China. Yeah, Woa is right. We talked
Speaker 1: about a bunch of our Andy Brown and Bloomberg New Economy,
Speaker 1: who you know lived in Asia. China specifically understands that market.
Speaker 1: You do as well. First of all, Uh, Janet Yellen
Speaker 1: coming out making some comments. We also had regulators specifically
Speaker 1: here in the US and elsewhere, pointing to China when
Speaker 1: it comes UH, specifically to that Microsoft exchange hack that
Speaker 1: happened UH and saying that they were actors affiliated with
Speaker 1: the Chinese government, accusing the Chinese government of a broad
Speaker 1: array of quote malicious cyber activities. How would you assess
Speaker 1: the U S. China relationship here we are on Monday,
Speaker 1: July one. It's a relationship that's been fraught with strain before.
Speaker 1: How does it look to you right now? Well, it's amazing.
Speaker 1: I mean I remember being on with you and Jason
Speaker 1: back in October two thousand nineteen, and that same question
Speaker 1: was asked right after the Daryl Morey tweet um that
Speaker 1: that shocks sort of the NBA and China relationship. And
Speaker 1: and we're in the middle of the Hong Kong protests
Speaker 1: at that time, and you cut it today almost two
Speaker 1: years later, and I would say this relationship has only
Speaker 1: gotten more amplified as far as its tense relations, and
Speaker 1: it seems the only begetting worse. I mean, there are
Speaker 1: there are signs of some green shoots out there, but
Speaker 1: there are very few and far between. For the most part,
Speaker 1: we're seeing things getting even more and more and more
Speaker 1: tense and more difficult. Well, you mentioned Darryl Moury. I
Speaker 1: mean the NBA front office grew right back in nineteen
Speaker 1: and basically he came out and expressed support for Hong
Speaker 1: Kong's pro democracy protests. And then you had Lebron James
Speaker 1: come out and remind us what he did. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: and it's unbelievable. And we talked about it back then
Speaker 1: two years ago, and here we are today. We have
Speaker 1: Space Jam two that came out in United States theaters
Speaker 1: and in markets around the world, yet China has not
Speaker 1: allowed it access to that market. And quite frankly, that
Speaker 1: movie was made for the Chinese market. Both the NBA,
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Hollywood really set its sight on that market,
Speaker 1: being the largest in the world. And to date we
Speaker 1: do not have a release date for it. Right, and
Speaker 1: this is Lebron Lebron James. He's been involved in this
Speaker 1: movie big time, obviously staring in it, but also in
Speaker 1: terms of the production of it. Yeah, no, and exactly.
Speaker 1: And he was one of the biggest critics towards the
Speaker 1: free speech rights of Darryl Morey, and there was a
Speaker 1: lot of reasons for him to do that because he
Speaker 1: had a lot of skin in the game when it
Speaker 1: comes to the China market. It's very difficult for people
Speaker 1: that don't to say, hey, why are you speaking up
Speaker 1: against what Darryl Morey was doing. But the fact is
Speaker 1: he's making fifty million dollars a year roughly in that
Speaker 1: in that market from those consumers, and he needs to
Speaker 1: tread carefully. But the fact is he has been treading
Speaker 1: carefully for the last two years, and we're seeing sort
Speaker 1: of the lack of reward for that cow towing happening
Speaker 1: today with his movie not in theaters. It's always been
Speaker 1: delicate for any of us who have been following UH.
Speaker 1: Increasingly US companies, global nationals, global multinationals overall, but US companies,
Speaker 1: you know, cozy up to China specifically over the last
Speaker 1: couple of decades because they wanted a piece of that
Speaker 1: one billion plus consumer market UH and doing whatever they
Speaker 1: needed to kind of get themselves on the ground. Do
Speaker 1: you think that change is dramatically going forward because of
Speaker 1: the heightened tentions. We've been in a heightened tention situation
Speaker 1: before between US and China. Look, I've been very vocal
Speaker 1: about it because I am hopeful. I have two kids
Speaker 1: that are fourteen years old and I want them growing
Speaker 1: up in a more balanced global community. So I'm talking
Speaker 1: about it. But I also want to be constructive. I
Speaker 1: I refuse to speak out against C suite executives telling
Speaker 1: them that they're doing the wrong things. It involves all
Speaker 1: of us. I mean, you have investors and shareholders that
Speaker 1: are putting massive pressure on these C suites to essentially
Speaker 1: cows out at the Chinese Communist Party and do exactly
Speaker 1: as they say. And on top of it, you can't
Speaker 1: just have one celebrity or one athlete like Lebron James
Speaker 1: take a stand. There'll just be a lone wolf for
Speaker 1: a sacrificial lamb and replaced by somebody else. So this
Speaker 1: is a united we stand situation. We need to create
Speaker 1: the leverage as a nation, as an a Western alliance
Speaker 1: to push back against the Chinese Countunist Party and we can,
Speaker 1: and we've seen it before. They do retreat if you
Speaker 1: apply the right kind of pressure. But right now we
Speaker 1: have not done that. It's all been lone wolf approaches
Speaker 1: and that's just not going to get us anywhere. So
Speaker 1: be real. You were president of DMG Entertainment, Motion Picture Group,
Speaker 1: General Matter, General manager, excuse me, DMG North America. So
Speaker 1: listen you you were working in China specifically when it
Speaker 1: came to you know, movies and all of that, you know,
Speaker 1: creative content and businesses. So I do wonder, is there
Speaker 1: do you expect it to change dramatically? Look, what I
Speaker 1: expect to change is more and more people like myself
Speaker 1: who were cogs in the wheel that believed in the
Speaker 1: mission of globalism being the best interests of the American um,
Speaker 1: the average American citizen, and our Western allies. But the
Speaker 1: fact is we've done it too far. We've done it
Speaker 1: in a way that is detrimental to the long term
Speaker 1: health of the Western Alliance and we need to wake
Speaker 1: up to that. And there's lots of us that are
Speaker 1: and it's time that we start to put pressure on leadership,
Speaker 1: on businesses and get consumers excited about the fact that hey,
Speaker 1: you know what, these companies, if they take an activist
Speaker 1: position against some of the things that are wrong in
Speaker 1: that market, they'll be rewarded with the pocketbooks of people
Speaker 1: in countries around the world that will generate more revenues
Speaker 1: for those products and services. We just need to have
Speaker 1: the guts and we need to start uniting together because
Speaker 1: just one shot, one single entities trying to approach this
Speaker 1: is just never going to get us anywhere. But the
Speaker 1: bottom line is, I am hopeful. You're hopeful, Okay, But
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I want to say, what's the likelihood?
Speaker 1: Just got about thirty seconds left here. I mean, hope
Speaker 1: is a great thing, and I'm an optimist and I'm
Speaker 1: with you, but I do wonder what's the likelihood. The
Speaker 1: likelihood is getting better because I'm seeing a bipartisan move
Speaker 1: towards it. We are seeing both left and right unify
Speaker 1: in Congress to push forward bills that might do it.
Speaker 1: So I am feeling like we do have a likelihood,
Speaker 1: but it's going to take a lot of work. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good point. Hey, listen, good to check in
Speaker 1: with you, b well. Chris Fenton, trustee of the USA
Speaker 1: Asia Institute, on the phone in New York City,