Chinese Embassy officials have met with congressional staffers over recent weeks in a bid to whip up opposition against legislation compelling the sale of TikTok, a source familiar with the moves confirmed to The Post.
Officials at the embassy scored a meeting with key staffers by raising false hopes about China making a concession on an unrelated point of contention between Washington and Beijing, according to the source, who requested The Post keep the specific matter quiet due to its sensitivity.
Chinese officials from the embassy then used that meeting to air out a litany of grievances against the US on a range of topics, including the TikTok divestment legislation.
Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu didn’t dispute the claims of meetings to The Post, insisting that the “Chinese Embassy in the US tries to tell the truth about the TikTok issue to people from all walks of life in the US.”
“This is not about lobbying for a single company, but about whether all Chinese companies can be treated fairly,” Pengyu further contended.
“The US side has never found evidence that TikTok poses a threat to US national security, but it has used state power and abused national security grounds to unjustifiably suppress TikTok, which is unfair and just.”
Notably, China does not allow popular American platforms such as Google, Facebook and YouTube on the internet in its mainland.
Politico first scooped the Chinese Embassy’s outreach to staffers on the TikTok legislation and cited at least one instance in which embassy officials mentioned TikTok in advance of a prospective meeting.
China’s outreach came to both House and Senate staffers alike. During the meeting they reiterated much of their public grievances, describing the divestment bill as unfair and arguing it could have negative consequences for US investors.
TikTok denied having any prior knowledge of the embassy’s outreach to congressional staffers when asked by The Post.
“At no point did we have any knowledge of these meetings until Politico approached us. Since the bill’s introduction, we’ve been publicly vocal about why we oppose the ban bill and will continue to do so,” spokesperson Alex Haurek said.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), whose communications team didn’t have any firsthand knowledge of the outreach from the Chinese Embassy officials, blasted the ordeal. Rubio has been one of the loudest proponents of TikTok divestment and is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“The lobbying efforts of the Chinese Embassy reveal their true agenda, protecting TikTok as a strategic asset for Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party to influence the United States,” Rubio told The Post.
TikTok is based out of Singapore and Los Angeles but is owned by ByteDance — something that has rattled national security experts as the platform grows increasingly popular.
Last month, the House passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act in a 352-65 vote. President Biden has expressed support for that bill.
That legislation called for TikTok to be sold off from Byte Dance within the next six months or else be barred from the Apple and Google app stores.
TikTok claims to have roughly 170 million users.
Thus far, the Senate has declined to take up that legislation and multiple sources have suggested to The Post that the House is mulling additional legislative action pertaining to TikTok, though the specifics aren’t fully clear.
National security experts have cited an array of concerns about China’s potential influence over TikTok, given that the platform can be used to amass biometric identifiers, location data, browsing history, and more.
The fear is that China could access that information for surveillance purposes and may be able to recalibrate the popular social media company to peddle propaganda in the US.
TikTok mounted a pressure campaign against lawmakers seeking to dissuade them from backing the bill. The effort included a pop-up that gave users information and encouragement to call their representatives.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), for example, recounted a chilling death threat he received from one caller.
