TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi’s Senate grilling on China ties could ‘undermine’ US image: Singapore envoy
- Questions like those put to Chew can hurt how America is ‘viewed in different parts of the world’, says city state’s ambassador in Washington
- Tense exchange during congressional hearing understood to be catering to a US audience ‘in an election season’ amid data-security concerns
Lui gave his thoughts in response to a question posed by the Post at a conference of the Washington International Trade Association in the US capital on Tuesday.
During the hearing, Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, asked Chew if he was a citizen of “any other nation” than Singapore, had ever applied for Chinese citizenship and had any ties to China’s Communist Party.
“Pure ignorance to the highest degree,” one comment read. “Just because he looks Chinese does not mean he’s from China.”
Chinese immigrants first came to Singapore in substantial numbers in the 19th century. Today more than 70 per cent of the country’s 5.9 million inhabitants are ethnically Chinese.
Lui on Tuesday said Singapore saw the highly charged encounter between Cotton and Chew from two angles.
And second, deep-seated concerns have persisted about companies “whether in China itself or coming out of China” possessing “a significant amount of data, possibly even sensitive data” relating to US citizens.
After both Democratic and Republican lawmakers voiced apprehensions about users’ data on the app being accessed by the Chinese government in Beijing, the company in 2020 decided to move its headquarters to Singapore.
Lui called for striking a “fine balance” between security sensitivities and the “overall image and impression that the US will want to continue to project and portray to the rest of the world”.
Cotton has previously visited Singapore, the envoy added, saying the country held the Harvard-educated US military veteran in “high regard”.