Zheng Zeguang denounces that “political manipulation” by the British authorities will only cause harm.
The Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom, Zheng Zeguang, maintains that the British authorities create pretexts to ban the TikTok social network on government devices, as he declared on Tuesday at a press conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
“We strongly oppose the UK’s act of making excuses for suppress a Chinese company“, he claimed. “The Chinese government protects the security of data and information in accordance with the law,” he added.
In this same sense, the diplomat from the Asian country recalled that the company’s executive director, Shou Zi Chew, has made it clear that the company is committed to protecting the security of its users’ data.
“Such political manipulation by the UK will only harm others and itself, including making a very popular social media platform unavailable to society, especially young people,” Zheng added.
security fears
For all these reasons, the Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom urged London to respect the facts, stop exaggerating and not abusing the idea of ​​national security, as well as stop deliberately suppressing Chinese companies.
On March 16, the Secretary of State of the United Kingdom Government announced the ban on the use of TikTok on the work mobile phones of British civil servants, citing security fears, as well as the potential vulnerability of sensitive data.
Over the past few weeks, the United States, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium and the European Commission have also followed suit. Washington went further, and the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs voted earlier this month to promote a law that would make it easier to ban TikTok throughout the United States.