Vice President Mike Pence Urges Prohibition of TikTok, Labeling It a Chinese Communist Platform
In reference to TikTok, former Vice President Mike Pence has urged for a ban in the United States, asserting that the platform enables the Chinese government to clandestinely gather data on American citizens.
“We should ban TikTok. TikTok is a platform for the Chinese Communist government. They are collecting data on Americans every single day,” Pence said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “Young Americans need to know that their privacy is at risk.”
Pence’s comments come ahead of a policy speech he will give on China on Monday. The relationship between the world’s two largest economies has received increasing attention in the 2024 presidential election. Republican candidates, including Pence, have criticized President Joe Biden, saying he needs to take a harder line with Beijing on a number of issues.
Pence hit out at one of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
“I know that one of my competitors, Vivek Ramaswamy in the Republican primary, had rightly described Tiktok as the digital fentanyl of American youth, and this week he signed up for Tiktok. He said he met one of their leaders and they changed his mind,” Pence said. “Well, they never change my mind.”
The battle over TikTok is just one part of growing tensions between the US and China over their technological ambitions. Biden has restricted the export of advanced chip-making technology over fears it could be used to help China’s military. China, in turn, has imposed its own restrictions, including on the ability of US chipmaker Micron Technology Inc. to sell products.
China is also moving to ban iPhone use by state-owned enterprises – a blow to Apple Inc that would expand previously announced restrictions. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters this week that China’s actions toward Apple appeared to be retaliation.
Earlier: China’s Apple iPhone ban appears to be retaliation, US says
Huawei Technologies Co. also recently unveiled a mobile phone that uses technology the US has sought to keep out of Beijing’s hands, calling into question the effectiveness of US chip restrictions.
“We led the fight against Huawei internationally in the West and we won that fight,” Pence said. “If you remember, the UK and other countries went to Huawei, and the US said it wasn’t going to happen.”
Pence said Friday that Biden had “dropped the ball” on China. Still, he said the United States should not seek to disengage from the country, despite the threat it poses.
“We have to recognize that China is the greatest economic and strategic threat to the United States,” Pence said, but added, “I believe that using access to the most powerful economy in the world, the United States of America, is the means. Ending China’s decades of trade abuses, intellectual property theft, military provocations and human rights violations.”
Pence said his speech on Monday will focus on “allowing China to join the family of nations and respect the international rules of the road, as I like to say.”
“The other part of this, I believe in free trade with free nations,” Pence said. “We should work on a free trade agreement with Japan. We should seek to strengthen trade relations with free nations in the Asia-Pacific region.
