China Urges for Fair Treatment Amid TikTok Security Concerns & bans

China has urged other nations to treat its companies fairly, following the decision of Britain and New Zealand to join the United States in restricting the use of TikTok over concerns that the popular Chinese-owned short video service may pose a security risk.

The concerns centre on the possibility of TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, providing browsing history and other user data to the Chinese government or promoting propaganda and disinformation.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, has called on governments to acknowledge the objective facts and to respect the market economy, while creating a non-discriminatory environment for all companies. The conflicts between China and other governments over technology and security are disrupting the processor chip, smartphone, and other industries.


The New Zealand government has said that legislators and employees in Parliament will be prohibited from having TikTok’s app on their phones, while Britain has announced a ban on TikTok for all government phones. The US has already banned TikTok on government-issued mobile devices, with more than half of American state governments, Congress, and the US armed forces prohibiting the app’s use by their employees. India has also banned TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps, including the WeChat messaging service, on security and privacy grounds.

The United States has also imposed restrictions on access by Chinese companies to processor chip and other technology over security and human rights concerns. China has accused Washington of spreading false information about TikTok following reports that US authorities were considering a ban if ByteDance did not sell the company.

The ruling Communist Party of China blocks most internet users in the country from seeing TikTok and thousands of other social media and other websites. However, ByteDance operates a sister short-video service, Douyin, that can be seen in China.