Following a tense Congress hearing on 31 Jan, TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi is once again in the spotlight. The Singaporean faced repeated questions over his citizenship, and he reminded Congress that he served in the Singapore military for “two and a half years” — just like every Singaporean male.
Chew was also asked if he has any links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), to which he replied: “Again, I’m Singaporean”.
The Congress hearing focused on children’s online safety in the United States (US) and CEOs from X, TikTok, Snap, Discord, and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram attended.
During the Congress hearing held on 31 Jan US time, Chew was grilled by Senator Tom Cotton over his links to China.
Cotton asked: “You…often say you live in Singapore. Of what nation are you a citizen?”
“Singaporean, sir,” Chew replied.
Source: Washington Post on YouTube
Cotton then asked: “Have you ever applied for Chinese citizenship?” To this, Chew said he served his National Service (NS) in Singapore for two and a half years.
He then reiterated that he does not hold other citizenships.
Singapore does not allow dual nationality.
Chew’s wife and two young children are American citizens. When he was asked if he had applied for American citizenship, he said: “Not yet.”
Then came a question of whether Chew has ever been a member of the CCP. This time, the TikTok CEO could not remain calm.
Senator, I’m Singaporean — no!
Even though the hearing dealt with children’s online safety, Chew faced numerous questions related to China.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company.
“TikTok is not available in mainland China,” he said in response to Senator Ted Cruz.
Source: Washington Post on YouTube
At one point, while talking about the difference in hashtags on “TikTak”, Chew denied Cruz’s assertion that certain keywords like #Uyghur, #hongkongprotest, and #tibet were found much less frequently on TikTok than Instagram.
“What censorship is TikTok doing as a request of the Chinese government?” Cruz demanded. Chew replied that there was none.
“Fundamentally a few things happen here: not all videos carry hashtags. Secondly, you cannot choose a few words…” Chew continued, before he was cut off by Cruz comparing the difference between Taylor Swift and Tiananmen Square.
He then replied to a question about “what happened at Tiananmen Square” by stating a “massive protest” took place there.
Cruz was subsequently told to wrap up after persisting with that line of questioning.
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Featured image adapted from Washington Post on YouTube.
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