Diplomat says UK ban politicizes tech company
Ambassador Zheng Zeguang speaks at a news conference on Tuesday in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (XING YI / CHINA DAILY) The United Kingdom government's recent decision to prohibit ministers and officials from having the TikTok app on their mobile phones has drawn criticism from China's ambassador to the UK. "To ban TikTok, to ban UK government officials from using it, or to describe TikTok as something that is controlled by the Chinese government is obviously overstretching the idea of national security and politicizing a technical company," Ambassador Zheng Zeguang said at a news conference on Tuesday during his first official visit to Northern Ireland. The UK government had earlier justified its decision to ban the app by saying the Chinese authorities could get TikTok and its parent company ByteDance to share sensitive information from people's phones. But Zheng said that simply could not happen because they are private companies and not part of the Chinese ...