Scheduled testimony by TikTok CEO to US lawmakers fans speculation among some Chinese netizens that he could face ‘danger’
- TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi is set to face a range of questions about TikTok’s privacy and data security practices in March Congressional testimony
- US politicians have upped their scrutiny of TikTok and other Chinese apps amid concerns about their data collection and content policies
Chew Shou Zi, CEO of TikTok, is scheduled to give Congressional testimony in late March, answering direct questions from US lawmakers on the short video app’s operations, in a development that has fanned speculation about his fate and some anger among China’s netizens.
TikTok is owned by China’s most valued unicorn ByteDance, which has rarely commented about mounting political pressure in Washington over the app’s reach and data collection practices, leaving Chew and his senior team on the front lines. Although Chew is a Singaporean citizen with a degree from Harvard, his career has largely been built within China’s tech landscape.
Amid rising geopolitical tensions between the US and China over a range of issues from Taiwan to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, US politicians have upped their scrutiny of TikTok and other popular Chinese apps amid concerns that their data collection and content policies could provide channels for Chinese authorities to exert undue influence in America. Beijing-based ByteDance also operates sister app Douyin in mainland China.
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According to a hearing notice posted on Capitol Hill, Chew is set to face a range of questions about TikTok’s privacy and data security practices, its impact on young users, as well as “its relationship to the Chinese Communist Party” at the Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23.
Although Chinese apps have been under pressure since former US President Donald Trump called into question their potential danger to national security in 2020, Chew’s hearing is highly unusual for a senior Chinese executive, fanning fevered speculation on Chinese social media.
One Chinese internet user named Sishuinianhua posted on news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, also owned by ByteDance, that Chew might even be detained by Washington as happened in the case of Meng Wanzhou. Meng, the CFO of Huawei Technologies Co and daughter of founder Ren Zhengfei, was detained at Vancouver airport in 2018 upon a US request and held for about 1,000 days before being allowed to return to Shenzhen in 2021.
Others raised the prospect that Washington may revive efforts to force a sale of TikTok’s US operations to overseas investors.
Among 104 comments applied to a report on Chew’s upcoming testimony on Jinri Toutiao, 47 discussed whether Chew’s trip to the US would be “dangerous”. The user named Sishuinianhua warned that it was necessary to “avoid repeating Meng’s case”.
Other netizens were less alarmed. One user going by the handle Duonaohepan on microblogging site Weibo posted that “he who has a mind to beat his dog will find his stick”, citing an ancient Chinese saying.
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However, although Chew will be one of the most senior Chinese executives to ever face a direct Congressional grilling, he will not be the first TikTok executive to face US lawmaker questions.
At a Senate hearing in October 2021, Texas senator Ted Cruz grilled Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s then head of public policy for the Americas, about the app’s links to China.
In December 2022, Biden signed into law a measure prohibiting federal employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices as part of an omnibus package. As of Tuesday, at least 31 states have banned the app on state networks or devices as well.
A separate bill introduced earlier this month prohibits federal funds from being sent to colleges and universities that have not banned the use of TikTok on institutional devices, with exceptions made for research purposes. TikTok and ByteDance spent a record US$5.4 million lobbying the US government in 2022, 3.8 per cent higher than a year before, according to its filings to the US House.
