US lawmakers see TikTok as China’s tool, even as it distances itself from Beijing

WASHINGTON — If some U.S. lawmakers have their way, the United States and China could have something in common: TikTok may not be available in either country.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill that would require Beijing-based company ByteDance to sell its subsidiary TikTok or face a nationwide ban. It’s unclear whether the bill will ever become law, but it reflects lawmakers’ fears that the social media platform could expose Americans to Beijing’s malign influence and data security risks.

But while US lawmakers associate TikTok with China, the company, which is headquartered outside China, has strategically distanced itself from its home country.

Since its inception, the TikTok platform has been intended for non-Chinese markets and is not available in mainland China. It withdrew from Hong Kong in 2020 when Beijing imposed a national security law on the territory to restrict expression. As concerns about data security in the US began to rise, TikTok sought to reassure lawmakers that data collected on US users will remain in the country and cannot be accessed by ByteDance employees in Beijing.

TikTok’s parent company is following the same playbook as many other Chinese companies with global ambitions: to win customers and trust in the United States and other Western countries, they downplay their Chinese roots and connections. Some have pushed for them to be called “global companies” rather than “Chinese companies.”

But for TikTok, this may not be enough. The House of Representatives bill passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 352 to 65. The prospects in the Senate are uncertain, but if it clears both chambers, President Joe Biden said he would sign the bill. The moves in Washington threaten the app’s survival and shine a spotlight on the dilemma that many private Chinese companies have found themselves in as they try to appeal to Western markets at a time of deteriorating US-China relations.

“It is the most difficult time for Chinese technology companies and private companies in decades, as tensions and rivalries between the United States and China continue to grow,” said Zhiqun Zhu, professor of political science and international relations at Bucknell University.

“These companies and businesses are being squeezed from both sides as they struggle to survive,” Zhu said. “While the US and other Western countries have imposed sanctions or restrictions on these companies, China itself has favored state-owned enterprises in recent years, leaving little room for Chinese technology and private companies.”

Alex Capri, a senior lecturer at the National University of Singapore and a research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation, agreed that companies like TikTok with Chinese roots are “really stuck in two polar extremes” between the heavy-handed Communist Party and the deeply suspicious West.

“Every Chinese tech company has to operate under a cloud of suspicion, and that’s because trust has been totally damaged,” Capri said.

With the rise of techno-nationalism, which regards technological capabilities as a national strategic asset, China’s technology companies are required by Beijing’s laws and regulations to transfer data and have become “essentially a de facto representative” of the ruling communist party of China. said Capri.

“That in itself makes it very challenging for companies like TikTok,” he said.

In 2018, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming toeed the party line after Beijing shut down ByteDance’s prank app. He publicly apologized for his company’s deviations from core socialist values ​​and vowed to “completely fix the algorithm” on the news app and add significantly more layers of censorship — a step deemed necessary for any company to survive in China .

That explains the oft-repeated assertion by Representative Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on China’s Communist Party, that “there is no such thing as a private company in China.”

The bill, as approved by the House of Representatives, aims to remove applications from app stores or web hosting services in the US unless the application cuts ties with companies – such as ByteDance – that are subject to the control of foreign adversaries, such as China.

“This is my message to TikTok: Break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users,” said Gallagher, the bill’s sponsor. “America’s main adversary has nothing to do with controlling a dominant media platform in the United States. TikTok’s time in the United States is over unless it ends its relationship with CCP-controlled ByteDance.”

Congress’ distrust of TikTok was on full display during a Jan. 31 hearing when Senator Tom Cotton repeatedly asked CEO Shou Zi Chew if he was a Chinese citizen beholden to the Communist Party. Chew, who is Singaporean, repeatedly said no.

On Tuesday, Representative Nancy Pelosi said it is problematic that ByteDance, owner of the social platform’s algorithm, is subject to Beijing’s control.

Chew told Congress at another congressional hearing last year that “we do not remove or promote content on behalf of the Chinese government.”

In a recent interview with Wired magazine, Chew acknowledged that the company’s Chinese origins have left TikTok with a “bigger trust deficit than most other companies.”

“Maybe our starting line in terms of trust is behind other companies, but I also think there’s a very serious approach that we’ve taken to gain that trust and close that gap,” Chew said, citing the efforts of TikTok to protect US users. data, be transparent and “do not allow yourself to be manipulated by any government.”

Apart from layoffs at home, Chinese companies pursuing global ambitions have tried to distance themselves from China by introducing many foreign investors, hiring foreign managers, moving their headquarters outside China and limiting their operations to overseas markets, said Thomas Zhang, China analyst at FrontierView. , a US-based market intelligence provider. But “the effects are limited as long as the founder in China does not relinquish control,” Zhang said.

For TikTok, trust is so poor that even a complete divestiture from its Chinese parent company may not work because complicated ownership structures could obscure potential Chinese ownership, Capri said.

As TikTok fights for survival, it has taken a step that is very present in American politics: it is engaging in heavy lobbying, calling on its 170 million American users to contact their lawmakers to say that a TikTok ban would infringe on their rights to freedom of expression.

It has won over one powerful critic: Former President Donald Trump came out against the TikTok legislation in a U-turn. But Trump, despite all his influence over Republicans in Congress, could not prevent passage of the House of Representatives.

If the bill becomes law, Capri said, TikTok could pursue the ultimate American recourse: a lawsuit to challenge the ban.