Should TikTok CEO’s Singaporean nationality matter?

National pride: Chew arriving at Congress for the hearing. Chew’s success on the global business stage has drawn interest from his fellow countrymen. – AFP

THERE could not be a more blatant display of anti-China sentiment than the United States congressional hearing on whether TikTok, the social media platform, threatened US national security.

TikTok chief executive officer Chew Shou Zi was grilled for more than five hours on Capitol Hill by both Republican and Democrat lawmakers. He had to contend with a flurry of charges against him and his company, including that he was working as an agent of influence for the Chinese Communist Party, that TikTok was violating US data privacy, and that it had the malicious intent of disseminating misinformation through use of its algorithm to sway public opinion on subjects related to US-China relations.