Chinese Ministry Of Foreign Affairs: US House Of Representatives Plans To Ban TikTok Will Become Boomerang

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin delivered a statement to the media in Beijing, China on Wednesday (13/03/2024) (ANTARA/Desca Lidya Natalia)

JAKARTA - Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the United States (US) parliament's plan to enact the TikTok social media ban law would only backfire on the country.

"The practice of taking unilateral steps when it does not succeed in healthy competition will instead disrupt business, weaken international investor confidence, sabotage economic order and trade in the world and will eventually backfire on the US itself," Wang Wenbin said as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, March 13. t

On Wednesday (13/3), the United States House of Representatives will hold a vote through a fast lane mechanism, requiring two-thirds of congressmen to choose "yes" so that the Draft Law (RUU) contains a ban on Tiktok social media applications in the country.

"In recent years, although the US has never found evidence that TikTok is a threat to its national security, the US has never stopped pursuing TikTok's mistakes," said Wang Wenbin.

The reason the US parliament banned Tiktok was that the company's ownership was deemed to pose a national security risk to the US.

Under the bill, the company that owns Tiktok ByteDance has six months to sell part of its shares to parties outside China, but if you can't do it, then app kiosks operated by Apple, Google and other services are officially not allowed to offer TikTok or provide "hotting web" services for TikTok.

Wang Wenbin did not answer reporters' questions when asked if the Chinese government gave ByteDance advice for the next steps against the bill.

"I have just stated China's position. The US acts of suppression disrupt the current normal international trade order and will eventually backfire," added Wang Wenbin.

TikTok users in the US alone have now reached 170 million people. The Bill on TikTok is even supported by both the Democratic Party and Republican Party.

The confrontation between China-US in the field of advanced technology and data security is getting fiercer because the two major countries want to secure their respective national economic and security forces.

Currently, the US has even restricted exports of advanced technology and money outflows to China as well as access to the US market for certain companies related to the technology.

ByteDance has stated TikTok is not owned and controlled by the Chinese government, will not share US user data with the Chinese government, and even warned that the act of selling shares to new buyers would even jeopardize the security of US data.