‘Happy to provide additional basic facts to you or your staff that I learned in elementary school. Ask anytime,’ California Democrat tells Tom Cotton
Tom Cotton is facing widespread criticism after he asked Singaporean TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew if had “ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party”.
The Arkansas Republican senator pursued the much-ridiculed line of questioning during a Senate hearing on child safety on social media on Wednesday, which was attended by a number of big tech CEOs such as Mr Chew.
“You said today, as you often say, that you live in Singapore – of what nation are you a citizen?” Mr Cotton asked.
“Singapore,” the CEO responded.
…
“Have you ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party?” Mr Cotton then asked.
“Senator, I’m Singaporean – no,” Mr Chew responded.
Unable to let the matter go, Mr Cotton asked: “Have you ever been associated or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party?”
“No, senator, again, I’m Singaporean,” the tech CEO said.
“oh yeah Singapore, I get that Singapore Mei fun at the Chinese restaurant all the time, what part of China is Singapore again?”
I mean I guess people confuse chinese culture with the People’s Republic of China? Kind of works in the CCP’s favor honestly, because dumb Americans give the PRC ownership of everything chinese, like Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Hasn’t Hong Kong been returned to China?
Eh it’s nuanced. HK is theoretically an autonomous region, and is usually treated as a separate country when it comes to passports/computer-databases. But most people don’t understand that nuance and assume HK is mainland China.
That nuance is pretty thinly veneered isn’t it though? They’ve disappeared a number of people, and did the standard ML authoritarian oppression thing to basically squash all real dissent and protest. Protests now having to be approved, with no face coverings allowed, with numbered identifiable lanyards required to be worn. So they know which door to knock down should you get too spicy.
Oh definitely, Hong Kong is controlled by a dictatorship now. I just mean culturally (and politically before 2020) Hong Kong isn’t the same as the PRC. But these days after the crackdown, it might as well be.
CPC 🙄
I’ll play devil’s advocate. Being Singaporean doesn’t preclude him from having ties to the CCP. Trump is American but clearly has many ties to Russian politics. Whether any of that matters is another question, but the way the article framed this interaction was stupid.