China says TikTok U.S. allegations are baseless

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Monday accused politicians in the U.S. of framing TikTok, a popular short video-sharing app, whose parent company ByteDance has been targeted by U.S. President Donald Trump for its "national security threat."

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday ordered Chinese tech firm ByteDance to divest its interest in U.S. TikTok operations within 90 days.

"There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance... might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States," Trump said in the order.

TikTok's U.S. business, including the area's president, middle and senior management teams, all employ Americans, with servers in the United States, data centers located in the United States and Singapore, said the spokesperson, Zhao Lijian.

The operation team is fully localized. Besides, the company employs 1,500 American employees and promises to create 10,000 jobs. TikTok also disclosed its review policy and the source code of its algorithm, Zhao told a press briefing.

"In the eyes of some U.S. politicians, national security seems to have become a panacea for the U.S. to find trouble for other countries, and a weapon to unreasonably suppress non-U.S. companies."

"The United States keeps claiming that TikTok and other companies endanger the national security of the United States, but even the relevant assessment report of the Central Intelligence Agency shows that there is no evidence that China has intercepted TikTok data or used TikTok to hack into users' mobile phones."

"Such bullying is a blatant denial of the market economy and fair competition principles that the United States has always advertised which violates international trade rules, arbitrarily infringes on the interests of other countries, and is bound to harm the United States' own interests," said Zhao.