US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns openly challenged China's objection to a recently passed ban on TikTok by the House of Representatives in the United States. His comments reflect persistent tensions between the two powers.
"I find it supremely ironic because government officials here are using the X platform to criticize the United States," Ambassador Nicholas Burns said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday.
"They don't give their own citizens the right to use X, to use Instagram, to use Facebook, to have access to Google."
Ambassador Burns said the social media app and China's thirst for advanced microchips are fueling technological competition between the world's two largest economies.
His words are indicative of a noticeably tougher position on China in light of its increased technological ambitions.
"Technology is in many ways now at the heart of the competition between the United States and China, whether it's commercial technology, TikTok for instance, or whether it's technology that can be transformed into military technology used to compete against us," Burns said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Beijing criticized the United States' efforts against TikTok, calling on the U.S. to stop "unreasonably suppressing" TikTok after the US House of Representatives passed a bill to ban TikTok in the country unless its owner ByteDance sells the app. The next step is for 100 senators to play their hand in deciding the fate of a platform used by 170 million Americans.
A week ago Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticized the U.S. for imposing a "bewildering" level of trade curbs on Asian nations. He further accused the Biden administration of failing to live up to promises it made during the president's meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a summit in the US, although he didn't specify what they are.
Burns said, "We've kept our commitments that we've made in San Francisco."
The ambassador also expressed doubt on China's goal to attract more foreign investment as it seeks to gain economic momentum. The Chinese government recently set an ambitious goal of 5% economic growth this year, which has been met with skepticism from analysts.
"Some senior Chinese government officials say private-sector investment is welcome in China, your investment will be protected. But then these companies are also hearing a different message," Burns said.
He named the raids against US companies last year and China's broad new counter-espionage law as factors that deter investment.
"I think the voices that they're hearing from the government here in China about national security - they're the strongest and loudest voices right now," he said, adding that the raids went beyond the due diligence companies and consultancies that were publicly probed by Chinese authorities.
Last year ties between the United States and China took a turn for the worse amid the alleged Chinese spy balloon fiasco, but the two countries are still at odds on such issues as Ukraine, the South China Sea, and Taiwan.
The US has also continued to increase its trade and technological restrictions on Beijing.
"We're not going to compromise on national security and we're not going to negotiate," Burns said. Biden's reasoning behind adding sanctions to suppress the advancement of China's technological know-how is that such technology could be used to bolster the country's military.
