Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Tuesday that he has introduced legislation that would ban Hollywood productions from using “Pentagon assets” if they enable Chinese censorship.
“We aren’t going to facilitate Chinese communist censorship,” Cruz told “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” “The problem of censorship is a massive problem within China. China’s own censorship and coverup of this [coronavirus] pandemic helped produce a 257,000 deaths worldwide and when it comes to Hollywood, Hollywood is not an innocent bystander here.”
The senator and former Republican presidential candidate was referring to reports that the Wuhan Institute of Virology potentially leaked the COVID-19 virus. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Tom Cotton Blasts ‘Apologists’ In Media For Accepting Chinese Propaganda Surrounding Coronavirus Origins)
“Hollywood is fully complicit, Hollywood works with the Chinese censors; Hollywood has been willing over and over and over again, there’s so much money at stake.”
Cruz mentioned how the Chinese demanded changes to the the sequel to “Top Gun” that the Chinese demanded changes to “the original ‘Top Gun’ may have been the greatest Navy recruiting film ever made,” Cruz said, noting that China wanted the flags of Taiwan and Japan removed from the lead character Maverick’s flight jacket.
“What are we saying to the world that Maverick is afraid of the Chinese communists?” Cruz asked.
The senator also said China demanded that it remove any indication that Queen’s lead singer, Freddie Mercury, was homosexual from the film “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
“Pause to think about how many Hollywood producers like to virtue signal about their courage and free speech and artistic integrity and yet they happily try to edit out the fact that Freddie Mercury is gay? It’s extraordinary.” (RELATED: Fox News Analyst Keane: Chinese Media Trying To Make A Hero Out Of Xi Jinping For ‘Stopping The Spread’ Of COVID-19)
A woman wearing protective gear adjusts her glasses in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicentre of China’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, March 30, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song
“I pointed this out the other day and several LGBT magazines began attacking me: ‘How dare Ted Cruz stand up and fight for gay rights.’ Listen, I am against censorship and against Chinese communists and by the way, I believe in truth,” Cruz said.
Critics accuse China of covering up evidence and testimony related to the coronavirus after the disease broke out in the city of Wuhan. The Communist Party leadership is suspected of gagging physicians who tried to warn the world about the potential devastation of the COVID-19 virus and reports suggest the regime has been systematically lying about the number of people killed by the disease.