Chinese Officials Flock to Twitter to Defend TikTok

Her post, which was retweeted more than 1,200 times, included a clip from TikTok showing Representative Kat Cammack, Republican of Florida, who during the hearing called the app “an extension” of the Communist Party of China. When Mr. Chew asked for a chance to respond, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican of Washington and the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said it was time to move on.

“What I think is surprising is how direct the attacks against U.S. lawmakers were,” said Etienne Soula, a research analyst at the Alliance for Securing Democracy and an author of the report. “It’s par for the course for them to go after the U.S. system in general, saying it’s dysfunctional, that democracy doesn’t work and that it’s not a real democracy.” It is far less common, he added, to see “very open insults.”

Chinese officials, including diplomats around the globe, have become adept at using social media — including platforms like Twitter and Facebook that are banned in China — to spread their political views to an international audience. The latest campaign, however, sought to directly influence the political debate in the United States.

Posts by officials and state media mocked the political process. At least one stoked speculation of a potential “Gen Z rebellion” if lawmakers or the administration succeeded in banning the app or forcing its sale, as the Biden administration had been proposing.

“China is careful not to interfere with other countries’ internal affairs or internal politics, so to have them weigh in so openly to encourage voters to riot — it’s outside the ordinary,” Mr. Soula said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/business/chinese-officials-defend-tiktok-on-twitter.html