US Ambassador Nicholas Burns offered a rebuke on Friday, saying Beijing’s stance was unjustified given it blocks many Western web platforms from operating in the country.
“I find it supremely ironic that government officials here in China … have been criticising the US for the debate we’re currently having on TikTok,” Burns said during an online seminar held by the East-West Center, a US-based research organisation.
“They won’t even let TikTok be available to 1.4 billion Chinese,” he said in response to a question about the avenues for American public diplomacy in China.
China’s government tightly controls the spread of information online and scrubs out social media content it deems politically sensitive.
Many Western platforms, including Google, Facebook and Instagram, are blocked from operating in the country.
TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance also runs a separate version of the app inside China called Douyin.
Some Western governments have voiced concern about TikTok’s soaring popularity, alleging that the app’s ownership makes it subservient to Beijing – a claim TikTok denies.
Source: CNA
