I discern this situation is slightly different. Let's say an incident around ICE caused protests and riots. After the riots continue, a major Tencent executive speaks out that he supported the riots comparing the ICE detention centers to interminant camps. Immediately after this, Trump asks the Tencent CEO to fire this executive for his interview on Chinese TV or the US will pull all Tencent games. In this situation, I believe Americans would be angry at the government and politicians. Some would agree with Trump and some would disagree, but I believe most people in America would not advocate banning a product or company due to one of its executives saying something that did not align with a political view.
I'm sure you'd agree that there would be a substantial amount of support for these protests, and similarly more for any country or executive that would align itself with the protesters. How much support in mainland China do you think the Hong Kong protests have? How do you think mainland Chinese would respond to the US overtly aligning itself with the protesters?
I fully agree that of course nobody would support censoring a view or political ideology that they agree with. The big question is what happens when the view or ideology is one we not only dislike, but condemn?
Having the US government act on citizen’s behalf would not be the mainstream view. If people felt that Tencent stood remove or reprimand the one executive who was out of line, they would be vocal in the press or with their wallets. I think we saw this with Jeffrey Epstein recently. While the fallout is likely to continue, US citizens have not asked the government to intervene in firing all of L Brands executives.
