Chinese netizens have rushed to denounce US lawmakers, who pressed TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi over the app’s Chinese ties in a lengthy testimony on Thursday.
Chinese media, scholars and netizens criticised US politicians and expressed sympathy towards TikTok’s CEO Chew Shou Zi, who was grilled by American lawmakers on the popular app’s Chinese ties during a nearly six-hour congressional testimony in Washington on Thursday. An article published by the Global Times, a daily tabloid affiliated with the People’s Daily, described the House hearing as a “political smearing carnival”. “Most of the congresspeople, especially the Republicans, had no intention of having a dialogue with [Chew],” the article read. “They had already convicted him and TikTok, convinced that the app is an agent of the Chinese government.” During the packed hearing, Chew fielded questions over the app’s danger to teenagers, data privacy and American national security. At a routine press conference on Friday, Mao Ning, spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, said the Chinese government “never has and never will ask businesses or individuals to violate local laws to collect or provide data and intelligence in foreign countries”. “The US government hasn’t provided any evidence to show TikTok threatening US national security,” she said. The hearing was “very damaging to the reputation of the United States as a positive business environment” and “set a very bad precedent for domestic competition in the US”, said Mei Xinyu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economics Cooperation, a think tank under the commerce ministry.
