Beijing on Wednesday warned the United States that a proposed ban on Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok “will inevitably backfire.”
Later Wednesday, the US House of Representatives will vote on a bill that would force the application to sever its ties with its Chinese owner, under penalty of being banned in the United States.
The legislation is the biggest threat yet to the video-sharing app that has gained huge popularity around the world, while raising concerns among governments and security officials about its Chinese ownership and possible subordination to the Communist Party in Beijing.
Before the vote, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin condemned the potential US ban.
He said: “Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens American national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok.”
He added, “This kind of bullying behavior that cannot win in fair competition disrupts the normal business activity of companies, harms the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and harms the normal international economic and trade system.”
“In the end, this will inevitably backfire on the United States itself,” Wang said.
The vote is expected to take place at 14:00 GMT, and will pass easily in a rare moment of consensus between the two parties in a divided political environment in Washington.
The fate of the bill in the Senate is not yet known, as senior figures oppose taking such a radical measure against an application that is very popular with about 170 million subscribers in the United States.
President Joe Biden must sign the bill, officially called “Protecting Americans from Controlled Foreign Apps,” into law if he reaches the White House.
The app strongly denies any ties to the Chinese government and has restructured the company in such a way that American users’ data remains inside the country, according to the company.
TikTok CEO Xu Zi Qiu is in Washington seeking to rally support to stop the draft resolution.
“This latest legislation, which was rushed through at unprecedented speed without the benefit of a public hearing, raises serious constitutional concerns,” Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s vice president for foreign policy, wrote in a letter to the sponsor of the resolution, seen by AFP.
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