Chew grilled over China’s reported opposition to sale of TikTok
Hours before Chew began testimony on Thursday, China said that a sale of TikTok by China-based parent company ByteDance would require the approval of the Chinese government, the Wall Street Journal reported.
At the hearing, lawmakers asked Chew about the report.
"Despite your assertions to the contrary, China certainly thinks it is in control of TikTok and its software," said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas. "Is that not correct?"
Chew replied, "TikTok is not available in mainland China, and today we're currently headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore."
"I'm not saying that the founders of ByteDance are not Chinese, nor am I saying that we don't make use of Chinese employees, just like many other companies around the world," he added.