Singapore's ambassador to the United States responded to "Zhou Shouzi was forced to ask about his nationality by US congressmen": It is too much and will damage the image of the United States
TikTok Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Zhou Shouzi was forced by a U.S. congressman to answer nationality-related questions 8 times at the end of last month, and the congressman was once scolded for being on the X platform for hot searches, which aroused public attention. According to the latest news from Hong Kong's "South China Morning Post" on February 14, Singapore's ambassador to the United States, Lui Tak Yew, spoke out in Washington, saying that a series of questions received by Zhou Shouzi in the US Senate on the so-called "relationship with China" were "excessive" and that such behavior could "damage the image of the United States."
Zhou Shouzi was repeatedly questioned by anti-China Congressman Tom Cotton at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 31 local time by anti-China Congressman Tom Cotton Picture from "South China Morning Post"
According to the report, Lu Deyao was interviewed at the Washington International Trade Association meeting held in Washington on the 13th local time, and expressed his position on Zhou Shouzi's repeated questioning of nationality-related issues by anti-China Congressman Tom Cotton at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 31 local time.
Ambassadors from Costa Rica, Singapore, Mexico, and diplomats from the European Union participate in the Washington International Trade Association Roundtable The picture is taken from the official X platform account of the Washington International Trade Association
"It's too much," Lui said, adding that Chow, who has always been a Singaporean citizen, is being questioned in the United States, and that such things "can sometimes damage the image of the United States in different parts of the world and people's understanding of the United States, not just in Asia, not just in Singapore." ”
According to the report, Lui also said that Singapore views the dialogue between Cotton and Chow from two perspectives: first, American politicians are trying to reassure those viewers in the United States by doing this kind of behavior "during the election season"; second, there are deep-rooted concerns that "companies in and out of China" have "a large amount of data, even sensitive data" related to American citizens.
Singapore's Ambassador to the United States Lui Tak Yew Data map from Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao"
Regarding the so-called "potential influence of China on TikTok" frequently hyped by some US politicians and media, the spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry has previously stated that the Chinese government attaches great importance to and protects data privacy and security in accordance with the law, and has never and will not require companies or individuals to collect or provide data, information and intelligence located in foreign countries to the Chinese government in a way that violates local laws. So far, the U.S. government has not provided any evidence that TikTok threatens U.S. national security, but it has repeatedly made "presumption of guilt" and unreasonable suppression of relevant companies. We note that some members of the U.S. Congress have said that seeking to ban TikTok is a "xenophobic witch hunt." The US should earnestly respect the principles of market economy and fair competition, stop unreasonably suppressing other countries' enterprises, and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for foreign companies to invest and operate in the United States.
According to the U.S. "Business Insider" website, CNN and other media previously reported, on January 31, local time, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing in Washington entitled "Big Tech Companies and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis", and the CEOs (CEOs) of the five major social media giants attended the meeting to testify and accept "torture" by U.S. lawmakers. The topic of the hearing was supposed to be "online child sexual exploitation", but the lawmaker's question was off topic. Tom Cotton, a well-known anti-China congressman, faced TikTok CEO Zhou Shouzi, who was present to testify, and threw out 8 questions in a row: which country is he from, whether he has applied for Chinese nationality, and whether he has applied for American citizenship. Even the nationalities of Zhou Shouzi's wife and children were greeted.
The U.S. media said in the article that Zhou's relationship with China had been discussed in detail when he attended a hearing in the U.S. Congress last year, but Cotton did not explain what his question had to do with children's online safety. The video of Tom Cotton interrogating Zhou Shouzi was also widely circulated on the social platform X, causing controversy. As of press time, the hashtag of "Tom Cotton" with the hashtag "Singapore" ranked at the top of the "hot search list" in the United States on the X platform, and many netizens condemned him as "xenophobic" and "naked racism".
It is worth mentioning that the U.S. government and some members of Congress frequently talk about "national security" and unreasonably suppress TikTok, but earlier this month, the U.S. media revealed that the Biden campaign team has settled in TikTok, and the TikTok account "bidenhq" operated by the team also released the first video on February 11 local time, which is believed to be aimed at winning votes from young voters. Some people ridiculed the behavior of the Biden campaign for this: If you can't defeat them, then join them.