China lashed out Monday against the US, calling the nation the “true global headquarters of hackers” after White House adviser Peter Navarro reiterated unsubstantiated claims over the weekend that TikTok user data is sent to the Chinese military.
Touching on a variety of anti-China angles, Navarro reiterated claims during a Fox Business interview on Sunday that user data collected by TikTok “goes right to servers in China, right to the Chinese military, the Chinese Communist Party.”
The adviser also stated that TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance, and similar Chinese apps can be used to “steal personal and financial information for blackmail and extortion, they can be used to steal business intellectual property and proprietary secrets.”
Asked about the Fox interview during a news briefing, Hua Chunying, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, initially responded to the matter by asking whether it was Navarro or Ron Vara, a fictional expert that Navarro has cited in his books, who made the comments.
“[Navarro] claimed that those data went directly to servers in China, to the Chinese military, to the Chinese Communist Party. Then prove it. If he cannot, then it is just the latest entry into his book of shameless lies,” Hua said.
“The US prides itself on values unrivalled by others, but why is it so scared of some popular video-sharing apps young people have so much fun with? Is it really so vulnerable now? We need to give…
