TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi’s Senate grilling on China ties could ‘undermine’ US image: Singapore envoy

TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi testifies during a US congressional hearing in Washington on Ja. 31. Photo: AP

WASHINGTON: Weeks after Singaporeans were left fuming from an American lawmaker’s grilling of TikTok’s CEO over his nationality and links to China’s Communist Party, the island nation’s top envoy in Washington has suggested the line of questioning went too far and could tarnish perceptions of the US.

“Taken too far”, interrogation such as that experienced by Chew Shou Zi, a lifelong Singaporean, “can sometimes possibly undermine the image and understanding of how the US is viewed in different parts of the world, not just in Asia and not necessarily only in Singapore”, said Lui Tuck Yew, Singapore’s ambassador to the US.