The Chinese Embassy is directly lobbying congressional staff to oppose a bill forcing ByteDance to sell its TikTok app or be banned in the U.S., despite the Chinese government claiming it does not control the company.
The House of Representatives has already passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications bill with broad bipartisan support. It must still pass the Senate, however, where it is opposed by lawmakers such as Rand Paul, who has received multi-million-dollar donations from ByteDance investor Jeff Yass.
It is not only Yass lobbying against the bill’s passage but also the Chinese government itself. At least three congressional aides, two from the Senate and one from the House, have held meetings or been invited to hold discussions with the Chinese Embassy, initiated by the Chinese.
Revealingly, Chinese diplomats suggested at the meetings that TikTok was being mistreated because it is Chinese, despite the company officially disclaiming links to China and stressing that it is registered in Singapore and the U.S.
China hawks argue that the embassy’s lobbying efforts prove TikTok is viewed as an essential tool of influence by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), underscoring the need for a ban.
“By lobbying congressional staff to protect TikTok’s relationship with ByteDance, [People’s Republic of China] officials are revealing how valuable TikTok is to the Chinese Communist Party. Losing control of the app would neuter Beijing’s most potent weapon against Americans,” argued American Foreign Policy Council fellow Michael Sobolik.
The embassy, however, argues it “tries to tell the truth about the TikTok issue to people from all walks of life in the U.S.” and insists its actions are “not about lobbying for a single company but about whether all Chinese companies can be treated fairly.”
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