This archive report was first published on 13 July 2020.
Published on July 13, 2020, China has fired back at the US over rising tensions between the two superpowers, dismissing White House trade advisor Peter Navarro's comments as "ridiculous and narrow-minded".
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying slammed the US as "the world's real hacker empire" during a routine briefing, citing the country's history of cyber attacks, surveillance, and theft of secrets on a global scale.
Navarro had argued that popular social media app TikTok, owned by Chinese group ByteDance, poses a security risk due to its data being shared with the Chinese military and Communist Party.
TikTok has consistently denied allegations that it shares data with Beijing, pointing out that it has an American CEO and has sought to distance itself from its Chinese owners.
Despite this, the US has been considering banning the app, with Democratic campaign teams for the US presidential election advised to avoid using it on personal devices.
