Drum Tower: Tick tock for TikTok
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2024
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On March 13th America’s House of Representatives passed a bill that could ban TikTok nationwide unless its Chinese owner, Bytedance, agrees to sell its stake.
Alice Su, The Economist’s senior China correspondent, and David Rennie, our Beijing bureau chief, look at China’s side of the story. Joined by Don Weinland, our China business and finance editor, they ask: does Chinese ownership of TikTok really pose a threat to America?
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Transcript
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| 0:40.6 | On this vote, the yeas are 352, the nays are 65. |
| 0:59.0 | The nays are 65. |
| 1:00.0 | The bill is passed. |
| 1:02.0 | On March 13th, America's House of Representatives passed the bill demanding that TikTok, the enormously popular social media app, cut its ties with China or else risk being banned |
| 1:13.5 | in America. |
| 1:15.0 | Although TikTok is based in Los Angeles and Singapore, it is a subsidiary of bite dance, a Chinese |
| 1:21.1 | tech giant. And that worries American politicians. |
| 1:24.9 | TikTok is a threat to our national security because it is owned by |
| 1:28.8 | ByteDance, which does the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party. |
| 1:32.3 | TikTok said its data is not accessible to China-based bite dance employees. False. |
| 1:38.2 | TikTok has been fighting back, insisting that the app is safe from state manipulation. |
| 1:43.0 | China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
| 1:44.5 | recently denounced the bill, saying America was resorting to hegemonic moves when it could not |
| 1:50.8 | succeed in fair competition. I'm Alice Sue, the economist senior China correspondent, and I'm here |
| 1:56.7 | with my co-host, David Reni, our Beijing Bureau Chief. This week, we're asking, does Chinese |
| 2:02.8 | ownership of TikTok really pose a threat to America? This is Drum Tower. From The Economist. David, good to see you. |
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