China

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking for an investigation into Zynn. Zynn, an app almost identical to TikTok, has quickly risen to the top of the app store charts and pays users for views and referring friends. In the letter, Senator Hawley raises concerns that the app’s immediate dominance may drive competitors out of the market, notes that Zynn’s parent company, Kuaishou, has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and has engaged in promoting propaganda and suppressing criticism, and suspects that Zynn is not abiding by Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requirements.

On the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent an open letter to American companies operating in China calling for them to stand up against the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) crackdown on Hong Kong. Senator Hawley says the CCP uses its economic power to silence foreign governments and companies but relies on American companies to do so. He calls for these companies to align their actions with their words and stand with the people of Hong Kong.

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to Google CEO Sunday Pichai calling on the company to provide an explanation for reports that YouTube is censoring comments critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In his letter, Senator Hawley describes a disturbing pattern of Google’s censoring criticism to curry favor with the CCP, calling for a specific account of when the company became aware of this “error” and what steps they have taken to correct it.

Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, announced the following witnesses for the hearing entitled “Dangerous Partners: Big Tech & Beijing.” The hearing will be held on Wednesday, March 4, at 2:30 p.m. ET in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Senator Hawley invited representatives from both Apple and TikTok to testify. Both companies declined his invitation – just as they did for the Subcommittee’s hearing in November.

Today Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai demanding answers about the company’s relationship with China’s Huawei. The letter follows reporting that Google and Huawei were collaborating on a Huawei-branded smart speaker and are “even closer than previously understood.”

In his letter, Senator Hawley writes, “[G]iven Google’s close relationship with Beijing and financial incentive to remain close to that authoritarian government, I remain concerned that Google may have been negligent in performing the due diligence that could have averted this mistranslation at a juncture where precision of message is so critical.”

Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford confirmed that Google’s work in China is directly benefitting the Chinese military when responding to a line of questioning from Senator Hawley during today’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing…

In his first open Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Senator Josh Hawley questioned Ely Ratner, Executive Vice President and Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security, on whether U.S. tech companies should be signing onto sensitive technology transfer agreements with Chinese firms.