Mike Pence urges TikTok ban, warns of privacy threat from China

Former Vice President Mike Pence said the United States should ban TikTok, calling it a platform that allows the Chinese government to obtain data on Americans without their knowledge.

“We should ban TikTok. TikTok is a platform of the Chinese government. They are collecting data on Americans every day,” Pence said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Friday. “Young Americans need to know their privacy is being compromised.”

Pence’s remarks came ahead of a policy speech on China on Monday. The relationship between the world’s two largest economies has come under increasing scrutiny in the 2024 presidential campaign. Republican candidates including Pence have criticized President Joe Biden, saying he must take a tougher stance against Beijing on some issues.

Pence took a swipe at entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, one of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.

“I know one of my rivals, Vivek Ramaswamy in the Republican primary, who rightly described Tiktok as digital fentanyl for young Americans, signed up for Tiktok this week . He said he had met with one of their executives and they changed their minds,” Pence said. “Well, they’re never going to change my mind.”

The fight over TikTok is just one aspect of growing tensions between China and the United States over their technological ambitions. Biden has restricted the export of advanced chip manufacturing technology due to concerns that it could be used to help the Chinese military.China has in turn imposed its own restrictions, including on U.S. chipmakers Micron Technology CorporationAbility to sell products.

China also seeks to ban state-owned enterprises from using iPhones – a blow to businesses Apple Inc. This will expand previously announced restrictions. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters this week that China’s actions against Apple appeared to be retaliatory.

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd It also recently quietly revealed a phone that uses technology the U.S. seeks to prevent Beijing from mastering, questioning the effectiveness of U.S. chip restrictions.

“We led the West in the international fight against Huawei, and we won that fight,” Pence said. “If you remember, the U.K. and other countries were fully supportive of Huawei, while the U.S. said it wasn’t going to happen. .”

Pence said on Friday that Biden had “failed” on China. However, he said the United States should not seek to decouple from the country despite the threat it posed.

Pence said: “We have to recognize that China is the greatest economic and strategic threat to the United States.” But he added, “I think taking advantage of the opportunity to enter the United States, the most powerful economy in the world, is a means.” Let China ends decades of trade abuses, ends intellectual property theft, ends military provocations, and ends human rights abuses. “

Pence said his remarks on Monday would focus on “providing, as I would say, an opportunity for China to join the community of nations and respect the rules of the international road.”

“On the other hand, I believe in free trade with free countries,” Pence said. “We should work towards a free trade agreement with Japan. We should seek to strengthen trade relations with free countries in the Asia-Pacific region.”

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