by ABBY LUONG
“Mr. Chew, does TikTok access the home WiFi network?”
“Mr. Chew, do you agree that TikTok is controlled by the CCP?”
“What’s your salary…?”
I watched TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s testimony in front of the United States Congress Commerce and Energy Committee the day after it happened with my dad. All I could think about was the U.S. government’s demonization of TikTok as a Chinese surveillance method will have consequences for the Asian-American community, particularly Chinese Americans.
When I heard the previously quoted questions, I was taken aback. In that room, there was an air of oppressive white American superiority, one many POC Americans, including myself, have suffered from at varying times in our lives.
Since the 1800s, when Chinese people first began immigrating to America, Americans have held a range of anti-Chinese and anti-Asian sentiments. One of the most well-known instances is the Chinese Exclusion Act. From outright violence like in the lynching of Vincent Chin in 1982 to microaggressions based on Asian stereotypes that my parents have experienced in the workplace, the general American attitude toward people of Asian descent is evershifting, but always distressful.
As China’s economy and power have grown, the U.S. government has been increasingly concerned over its role within the United States.
The country was particularly targeted when the COVID-19 pandemic began and former President Trump referred to the virus as the “Wuhan virus” and “kung-flu.” These derogatory, targeted terms are one factor that fueled the spike in anti-AAPI hate crimes. In the past three years, hate crimes against Asian Americans rose 339% from 2020 to 2021, according to NBC News.
On the topic of TikTok, an app created and still partially owned by a Chinese company, the U.S. government is concerned about specific laws that require Chinese companies and citizens to turn over data for intelligence-gathering operations. However, TikTok has denied any collusion with the Chinese government, and no public sources have definitively found that TikTok is sharing its user data with the CCP.
Nonetheless, in the past couple of months, the U.S. government has buzzed about the possibility of banning TikTok throughout the country; they banned the app on government devices in 2020. Several other countries, U.S. states, and universities have also introduced a variety of bans. The state of Montana fully banned the app for all residents, sparking a lawsuit filed by TikTok itself.
Furthermore, the sheer disrespect the Congresspeople showed Mr. Chew plainly showed their anti-Chinese prejudices. Many representatives in that room did not seem to grasp TikTok, the technology behind it or their own biases. For example, in regard to filters that fit on users’ faces, Republican Rep. Buddy Carter from Georgia asked Mr. Chew why TikTok had to collect facial data for the app. If it wasn’t obvious, for sunglasses to appear on your face, the app must know where your eyes are.
Inquiries, including those by Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Rep. Michael Burgess, and Rep. Kat Cammack, specifically targeted Mr. Chew’s personal life and connections to Byte-Dance and China.
These same topics were off-limits during Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg’s 2018 testimony. Americans’ disrespect for foreigners is starkly displayed in this contrast, and it is not hard to see how these attitudes can be spread to Americans whose appearance is very similar.
Despite evidence to the contrary and succinct and professional testimony from Mr. Chew, the committee members of the Congress refused to confront their biases and give up their anti-CCP prejudices.
The ignorance and arrogance in that room may very well spread to the American public. It is essential that Americans keep an open mind as often in the past, the government’s anti-Chinese sentiment has led to discrimination and attacks against Asian Americans.
The Mainsheet 