TikTok saga mirrors Sino-US tensions

TikTok chief executive Chew Shou Zi’s commendable composure as he faced a nearly five-hour grilling from United States legislators at a congressional hearing to examine why the popular app should not be banned is another punctuation mark in the evolving saga of US-China relations, whose bottom is yet to be plumbed. With the session televised live, at a time when a toughening attitude towards China has become the bipartisan organising principle of US foreign policy, lawmakers got plenty of air time to project leading questions and steely gazes at Mr Chew, a Harvard-educated Singaporean.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing came after the Biden administration, citing data security concerns, indicated it may impose a blanket ban in the US if TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its stake in the app to an American firm. In early March, Washington told government agencies they had 30 days to delete TikTok from federal devices and systems. Similar restrictions are in place in some other jurisdictions, including Britain and parts of the European Union, with France being the latest to ban TikTok on government phones. Now, many American legislators seek an outright ban on the app.