Canada and the European Union also vetoed the use of the popular application on official cell phones. Beijing’s harsh response.
Washington and Beijing clashed again this Tuesday, in the midst of an escalation of tension due to a series of thorny issues. Now the center of the fight is the popular Chinese application TikTok: the US government prohibited its use on the mobile phones of officials feds. And the Asian country responded with outrage.
China accused the White House on Tuesday of “abusing its state power” and its “concept of national security.”
The spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, stated at a press conference that the United States “abuses” by “unjustifiably repressing companies from other countries.”
According to Mao, “The United States, a great power, shows a lack of self-confidence by fearing an app popular with young people.”
The spokeswoman expressed Chinese opposition to what she described as an “abuse of state power” by Washington, and called on the Joe Biden government to “respect the principles of the market economy and fair competition.”
At the same time, the spokeswoman urged the United States to “create an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for companies from all over the world to invest and operate” in its territory.
TikTok, belonging to the Chinese technology giant ByteDance, has become a political goal due to concerns that the application – very popular around the world – could be used to espionage or propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Canada and Europe also suspect
Strictly speaking, not only Washington stood up against the micro-video application that is all the rage among children and young people. Also in Canada they fear that Chinese espionage will leak through TikTok and the government prohibited its use on official devices. And several countries in Europe took similar measures.
“I suspect that as the government takes the conspicuous step of telling all federal employees that they can no longer use TikTok on their work phones, many Canadians, from businesses to individuals, will reflect on the security of their data and perhaps make decisions ”said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The executive branch of the European Union, meanwhile, said last week that it had temporarily banned TikTok from the cell phones used by its employees as a cybersecurity measure.
TikTok has questioned those bans. He claims that he did not get a chance to answer questions and that governments are depriving themselves of a platform adored by millions of people.
China, in turn, has long blocked a long list of foreign social media platforms and messaging apps, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
one month term
The White House gave US federal agencies 30 days to remove TikTok of all government electronic devices.
The director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, issued a memo to “remove and disable installations” of the app on devices operated by government agencies.
It also stipulated to “prohibit internet traffic” from the devices to the app.
The Biden government thus complies with a bill passed in the US Congress at the end of last year that requires federal agencies to suppress TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, due to fearing that user data could fall into the hands of the Chinese government.
The government ban does not apply to companies in the United States that are not affiliated with the federal government, nor to the millions of citizens who use the popular app.
Two-thirds of American teens use TikTok, but Washington fears China could use its legal and regulatory powers to obtain private data from users or attempt to spread misinformation or messages favorable to China.
Relations between Beijing and Washington deteriorated in recent years, especially during the US presidency of Donald Trump (2017-2021), marked by the trade war launched against China, which ended up leading to an increasingly tense conflict. in other fields such as technology.
National security concerns over suspected Chinese espionage were heightened by an incident involving a Chinese balloon traversing US airspace and then being shot down.
Source: agencies
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