Apple, TikTok skip hearing on China ties
Apple and TikTok took a lashing Tuesday for skipping a congressional hearing meant to explore the tech industry and its ties to China, an absence that now threatens to bring sustained political scrutiny of the companies’ controversial relationships with Beijing.
Two empty chairs at a witness table served to illustrate the companies’ absence from the hearing, convened by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., a tech industry critic who opened the session by blasting Apple and TikTok over “the danger of Chinese tech platforms’ entry into the U.S. market, and the danger of American tech companies’ operations in China.”
Mr. Hawley reserved his most pointed criticism for TikTok, questioning whether the company — owned by ByteDance, a Chinese conglomerate — sufficiently protected U.S. users’ data and resisted censorship demands government officials in Beijing.
The criticisms come at a tough time for TikTok, which is facing investigation by the U.S. government for potential national security concerns.
TikTok has maintained its independence, stressing on that U.S. users’ data is stored in Virginia with a backup in Singapore while noting it does not make decisions about content moderation based on signals from Beijing.
3 dead at Iraq port
At least three anti-government protesters have been killed in clashes with security forces in southern Iraq, officials said Tuesday, as authorities tried to reopen the country’s main port, which had been blocked by demonstrators for three days.
Security and medical officials said a protester was killed and eight more were wounded in Umm Qasr, a key oil terminal on the Persian Gulf.
The Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, a semiofficial agency, said two people were killed and 23 wounded in clashes in the town of Shatrah, north of the southern city of Nasiriyah.
The officials said security forces in Umm Qasr fired live ammunition and tear gas and that protesters seized an armored vehicle. Video showed dozens of protesters running on a road near the port with gunfire crackling in the distance.
Security forces in Iraq have killed at least 267 protesters in two major waves of anti-government demonstrations since Oct. 1 in Baghdad and across the mostly Shiite south. The protesters want an overhaul of the political system established after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
China’s Xi backs Lam
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s surprise meeting with Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam was a “vote of confidence” in her government’s ability to tackle five months of anti-government protests that have rocked the semiautonomous Chinese territory, a senior official said Tuesday.
Mr. Xi met Ms. Lam on the sidelines of a trade event in Shanghai on Monday night amid signals from China’s central government that it may tighten its grip on Hong Kong to quell the unrest that has at times challenged Chinese rule.
When asked if the meeting reflected Mr. Xi’s worry about Ms. Lam’s handling of the unrest, Hong Kong Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung said, “The reverse is true.”
“The very fact that he is so busy, that he found time to meet, really is a vote of confidence in ourselves” and underlined the importance that Beijing attaches to Hong Kong, Mr. Cheung said at a news conference.