When the United States put pressure on TikTok, a Chinese video sharing platform, in the form of holding a congressional hearing and forcing a sale, China announced a legal response.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on the 23rd, when asked about the Chinese government’s position on the recent US government pressure to sell TikTok at a regular briefing on the same day, spokesperson Sue Ting said, “Forcing the sale of products and services while ignoring them is a damage to the United States, including China.” “If the related news is true, China expresses strong opposition,” he said.
Spokesperson Su said, “Issues related to sales and technology exports must be handled in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations,” adding, “The Chinese government will decide (handle) according to the law.”
This remark is interpreted as meaning that China is considering legal action at the government level. In the middle of this month, the Joe Biden administration ordered the sale of a stake in Byte Dance, the parent company of TikTok, for security reasons.
Meanwhile, on the 23rd (local time), the US House of Representatives strongly pushed Zhou Shou-zi, CEO of TikTok, to attend a hearing on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
At the hearing, US lawmakers from both the opposition and opposition parties expressed concern about the Chinese government’s possible access to TikTok’s US user information.
On the other hand, CEO Zhou countered, saying, “We do not promote or delete content at the request of the Chinese government,” and “there is no evidence that the Chinese government has accessed the data.”
“We will keep TikTok free from manipulation by any government, and we promise to the Commission and all our users,” he said.
There are an estimated 110 million TikTok users in the United States and 1 billion worldwide.
Concerns continued to emerge in the United States that the information of US TikTok users was being passed on to China, and the US Congress banned the use of TikTok on federal government devices.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.