CORY DOCTOROW / 11:07 AM TUE MAR 20, 2018
The
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a big-business think-tank that
authors "model legislation" at the local, state and national level that benefits
corporations at the expense of everyday people; their greatest hits make for
scary reading -- you can thank ALEC for ag-gag laws, stand-your-ground laws,
private prisons, bans on municipal ISPs, killing Obamacare and jailing pipeline
protesters.
ALEC's
Republican legislator friends often introduce bills that are word-for-word
identical to the "discussion drafts" they circulate, making ALEC the nation's
most prolific and unapologetic legislative ghost writer.
Alibaba
is ALEC's latest member. The Chinese tech giant is an integral part of China's
surveillance apparatus and a de-facto arm of the Chinese government. It's the
latest Chinese giant to join US corporate lobbying efforts, a list that includes
Wanhua Chemical joining the American Chemistry Council to help fund its
legendary pro-pollution super-PACs.
Bill
Anaya, head of government affairs for Alibaba operations in the Americas, spoke
at ALEC’s States & Nation Policy Summit in Nashville, Tenn., last December,
according to notes taken at the meeting and obtained by The Intercept and
Documented. The gathering brought together over one thousand state and local
lawmakers and lobbyists.
Alibaba
did not respond to a request for comment, but at the conference, Anaya heralded
his company’s entry into the lobby. “We’re so excited to be a part of ALEC,”
said Anaya. “We are probably the world’s largest e-commerce company you have
never heard about. We have business-to-business marketplace solutions. We have
VC marketplace solutions. And we have over 500 million active buyers on our
marketplaces.”
Source
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