Beijing denies allegations made in U.S. Congress TikTok hearing

Beijing on Friday, rejected allegations that private companies were being compelled to release personal data to Chinese government authorities.

This was in response to a drawn-out and tense hearing of TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew before the US Congress.

Neither companies nor individuals had ever been forced to pass on data or intelligence service information from other countries, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in Beijing. This would also not change in the future, she added.

“The US administration has not provided any evidence that TikTok threatens the national security of the United States,” she said.

Allegations were instead being made repeatedly and the company was being placed under inappropriate pressure, she said.

The official called on the US to respect the principles of the market economy and competition.

Chew faced distrust and scepticism from lawmakers in a hearing before the US Congress lasting almost five hours on Thursday. In a rare show of unity, Democrats and Republicans insisted that measures taken by the social media company to secure the data of its US customers were inadequate.

The TikTok boss had tried to convince the lawmakers of the company’s data security principles with a plan called “Project Texas.” Under this plan, data from US users would be stored on servers in the US and access to it would be restricted and controlled. Senior Democrat Frank Pallone described the plan however as “simply not acceptable.”