China Condemns U.S. Proposal to Force the Sale of TikTok
The New York Times
The foreign ministry accused Washington of “resorting to hegemonic moves” ahead of House vote on a bill aimed at ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company.
China on Wednesday condemned U.S. lawmakers’ push to force the Chinese parent company of TikTok to sell the popular short video platform.
In Washington, House lawmakers were expected to vote on a bill later in the day that would require the Chinese internet company ByteDance to cut ties with TikTok or face a nationwide ban. Lawmakers say that Beijing could use TikTok to spread Chinese Communist Party messages or gain access to sensitive data about TikTok’s American users.
Beijing rejected concerns that the app was a danger to the United States.
“In recent years, though the United States has never found any evidence of TikTok posing a threat to U.S. national security, it has never stopped going after TikTok,” said Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, during a daily press briefing.
China has opposed previous efforts in the United States to force ByteDance to give up TikTok.
The fervor over the House bill is the latest episode in a yearslong saga over the app’s future in the United States.
