Tom Cotton grills Singaporean TikTok CEO: Are you a Chinese Communist?-ZoomTech News

Numerous large tech leaders had been summoned for a congressional hearing Wednesday on the difficulty of kid security on-line. Lawmakers mentioned the businesses — Meta, X (previously Twitter), TikTok, Snap, and Discord — have failed to guard kids from on-line intercourse abuse and exploitation.

When it was GOP Sen. Tom Cotton’s flip to take the stand of questioning, he repeatedly requested TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew whether or not he’s Chinese language and a member of the Chinese language Communist Social gathering. Chew adamantly responded that he’s Singaporean, not Chinese language.

The back-and-forth alternate continued for an entire minute as Cotton, of Arkansas, insisted on the identical traces time and again.

Chew, clearly rising annoyed, said that he served the Singaporean army for a number of years, which is obligatory for male residents over 18, and that he holds solely a Singaporean passport. (Twin citizenship isn’t allowed in Singapore past age 21).

“Singapore, sadly, is without doubt one of the locations on the planet that has the very best diploma of infiltration and affect by the Chinese language Communist Social gathering,” Cotton mentioned on Fox Information’s The Story With Martha MacCallum Wednesday. “So, Mr. Chew has lots to reply for, for what his app is doing in America and why it is doing it.”

TikTok has confronted a lot scrutiny — from each Democrats and Republicans — over issues that its China-based mother or father firm, ByteDance, is likely to be sharing consumer information with the Chinese language authorities.

This isn’t the primary time that Chew himself was the topic of questioning over his background. Final yr, Chew confronted lawmakers in a high-stakes listening to over the security and safety of TikTok.

He has mentioned up to now that the app is “free from any manipulation from any authorities.”

Consultants fear that hostile rhetoric framed as geopolitical and nationwide safety issues have given rise to a brand new sort of McCarthyism and xenophobia in opposition to Asian-Individuals.

Almost two years in the past, the Division of Justice ended a controversial Trump-era program referred to as the China Initiative, which aimed to counter the Chinese language authorities’s theft of American secrets and techniques and expertise by concentrating on largely ethnic Chinese language lecturers. Though this system was stopped after accusations of racial profiling, a not too long ago proposed invoice might revive the initiative.

“Clearly, we need to ensure that our nationwide secrets and techniques are protected. However what Trump did was to make this a concentrate on one nation,” mentioned Democratic Rep. Judy Chu of California in a 2023 interview with NPR. “And that is why I’ve at all times emphasised to my colleagues that they distinguish between the Chinese language folks and the Chinese language Communist Social gathering. As a result of, I let you know, when it simply turns into the Chinese language folks then it turns into — in American’s minds — all people.”

Neither Cotton’s workplace nor TikTok responded for remark.