Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is facing criticism over his questioning during a hearing with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew earlier this week.
Cotton asked Chew several times whether he had any personal relationship with China. Chew was voluntarily present at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to address children’s safety on his platform. Other social media CEOs were there, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, X’s Linda Yaccarino, Snap’s Evan Spiegel, and Discord’s Jason Citron.
When Chew confirmed that he is a naturalized citizen of Singapore, Cotton continued to press the CEO, asking if he had ever applied for Chinese citizenship or a Chinese passport, as both his parents are Chinese. Chew denied having applied for either. Additionally, Chew testified that he has a Singaporean passport and served in the Singaporean military.
“Have you ever been associated or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party?” Cotton continued to question him.
“No, Senator,” Chew said. “Again, I’m Singaporean.”
The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus criticized Cotton’s repeated questioning on X on Thursday, a day after the hearing. Some 77 members comprise the caucus.
“Conflating Asian individuals with the CCP is not only racist, it is incredibly dangerous,” the caucus wrote. “This type of rhetoric has no place in the halls of Congress or in our country.”
CAPAC First Vice-Chairwoman Grace Meng (D-NY) also called the interrogation racist in a post to X.
“Why did he not feel so compelled to ask similar questions of the other executives?” Meng wrote. “We know why. Rather than doing basic research in advance of this hearing, Senator Cotton asked a series of thoughtless and derogatory questions.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Neither China nor Singapore allow their citizens to obtain dual citizenship.
Cotton defended his questioning on X and in a subsequent television interview, citing Chew’s previous employment by a Chinese company that is sanctioned by the U.S. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is also based in China.
