China is warning that a ban on TikTok would “come back to bite the United States.”
The message was delivered Wednesday by Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin as the House passed legislation, 352-65, that would force the app’s parent company, Chinese-owned ByteDance, to sell the platform or face a ban from U.S. app stores and web hosting services.
“Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok,” Wang said, according to AFP.
“This kind of bullying behavior that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order,” he continued, referring to The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
“In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the United States itself,” Wang added.
The controversial legislation is dividing Republicans, with 15 representatives voting against the measure Wednesday along with 50 Democrats.
Former President Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has had a major change of tune on the effort to ban TikTok as well, now arguing that doing so would only empower Facebook.
“Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it. There are a lot of users,” Trump said Monday on CNBC.
“There’s a lot of good and a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don’t like is, without TikTok you can make Facebook bigger. And I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with the media,” he added.
Trump’s reversal came after meeting with GOP megadonor Jeff Yass, who holds a 15 percent stake in ByteDance.
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