There is some trouble on the horizon for Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) as an article from Just the News uncovered that her husband’s firm was working on behalf of companies linked to China’s military, intelligence, and security services while she was calling for the United States to stand up to the “generational threat” posted by the communist country.
While Rep. Liz Cheney was unveiling a major report on China’s “malign behavior” and speaking out about the country’s wrongdoings, her husband’s law firm was profiting from Chinese companies.
“China is rapidly developing a military force that is capable of winning regional conflicts and they’re expanding their military footprint globally,” Cheney said at a press conference while unveiling the report. “The government of China and the Chinese Communist Party have gone to school on the United States — they’ve looked at our capabilities … and they have developed capabilities to counter those.
“We must counter the Chinese Communist Party globally as it seeks to establish more robust logistics and basing infrastructure around the world as it seeks to project its own military power,” she added. “It is very important for everyone to note that we are in the midst of a battle between freedom and totalitarianism. The question we all face is whether the United States and our allies will set the rules of the road into the future or whether the Chinese Communist Party and that authoritarian, totalitarian regime will set the rules of the road.”
Cheney’s husband, Philip Perry, works for Latham & Watkins (LW), one of the largest law firms in the world. As Cheney was speaking out against China’s actions, LW was cashing in on legal and lobbying work for several Chinese companies, many of which were involved in the kind of activity that Cheney was claiming had to be stopped.
Just the News reports that LW has advised companies forging partnerships with Alibaba — a major Chinese tech firm that is pursuing technological research that has military applications.
The law firm also “advised” Tencent, a massive Chinese technology company, on becoming a shareholder in leading video game developer Voodoo. According to a Pentagon report to Congress from 2021, Tencent is one of fifteen companies designated by Beijing “to facilitate industry-wide coordination” with the Chinese government on artificial intelligence (AI). Many analysts believe that AI will be essential to China’s future, playing a “game-changing” role in the country’s military innovation and future warfare strategy. Some say it is already making a significant difference.
According to Just the News, “All of LW’s work discussed in this article was legal, and Perry didn’t work directly on these accounts. But as a partner at the firm, he benefits and profits from all its work.”
The outlet adds:
“Perry’s firm’s work for Chinese entities and countries whose human rights abuses and authoritarian rule have troubled the U.S. for years seems to conflict with his wife’s frequent calls for America to stand up to autocratic regimes like China. The dynamic is one familiar to longtime observers of Washington, D.C.: a power couple calling out the very behavior from which they benefit.”
“It’s the kind of say one thing do another that Americans hate in Washington, D.C.,” former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said in response to the news. “Liz Cheney will have a lot of explaining to do to the Wyoming voters.”
