BEIJING - China called on the United States to stop "unreasonably suppressing" TikTok, as the popular video-sharing application used by 170 million Americans moves to the centre of lingering tensions between the superpowers.
"The US should respect the market economy and the principle of fair competition," Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong said at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Thursday. "China will take all measures to resolutely defend its lawful rights and interests."
Speaking at a separate briefing in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the US has not shown that TikTok is a threat to national security.
"The handling of the incident by the US will allow the world to see more clearly whether the so-called rules and order of the US are for the benefit of the world or only serve the US itself," Wang added.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a bill to ban TikTok in the US unless its Chinese owner sells the video-sharing service, mounting the most serious challenge yet to an app critics call a national-security threat.
If it becomes law, the bill will force a fresh showdown with China, whose leaders came out against a sale when President Joe Biden previously pressed TikTok’s owner ByteDance Ltd to sell. Biden has said he would sign the legislation if it passed. The bill now moves to the US Senate.
Relations between China and the US have stabilised since Biden met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in California in November, repairing a relationship that frayed for much of 2023.
China's Commerce Ministry also hit out at the US after Biden pledged to look into a petition from a group of unions asking his administration to review Beijing’s subsidies for shipbuilders.
The accusations are unfounded, He said, and Washington should not blame Beijing for issues in its shipbuilding industry.