Sen. John Kennedy: New Bill Aimed at Chinese Intellectual Property Theft

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said on Sunday the fast-growing company Zoom has to decide whose side it’s on: the United States or China.

In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Kennedy condemned an alleged move by the company to eliminate an account that wasn’t acceptable to China.

“I’m delighted that American companies want to, and indeed, do do business in China with the people of China,” he said. “But the Communist Party of China has got to leave these businesses alone in terms of their politics.”

Kennedy offered the example of a group called "Humanitarian China" that opened a Zoom account, “and they were using it to organize a commemoration of the students who were killed in China at Tiananmen Square.”

He charged that officials in China “picked up the phone, call Zoom and said ‘eliminate their account, we don't want them talking about this’ and Zoom did it.”

“That’s not right,” Kennedy declared. “That's not right by the Communist Party or by Zoom. Someone needs to decide whose side it's on.”

Kennedy also explained the new CONFUCIUS Act would force U.S. universities to be transparent about foreign donations.

“The people of China are wonderful people but their leadership, President Xi [Jinping], has been doing a pretty fair impression of a thug as have the other members of the Communist Party of China,” Kennedy said. “I don't want to start a new cold war with the Communist Party of China. I want China to become a vested stakeholder. But they've got to stop cheating, they've got to play by the rules.”

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