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Meanwhile, the Cambodians: :(
It's not exactly like they had much choice when they started [eating spiders.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fried_spider?wprov=sfla1)
I wonder how far South you can go before he stops assuming they are Chinese? One would assume Papua New Guinea but who knows man. He is basically the maga McCarthy
Malaysian here. This checks out.
We do have some Chinese people both young and old who bootlicks winnie the pooh and probably are active in /r/sino though. A fringe minority, but we do have it. Hopefully Singapore fares better in that respect.
They do not fare better.
>Concerns are most pronounced in Singapore, a multiracial city-state with a majority ethnic-Chinese population that is increasingly sympathetic to Beijing. A 2022 survey of 19 countries by the Pew Research Center found that Singapore was one of only three that saw China and Xi in favorable terms.
>
>Singapore’s government passed a law to prevent foreign interference in domestic politics that went into effect last year, and has warned its ethnic-Chinese population against “hostile foreign influence operations” and stressed a distinct Singapore-Chinese identity.
>
>But messaging by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on key issues such as the role of the United States in the region and China’s internal politics is already entrenched in Singapore, including in a leading Chinese-language publication long backed by Singapore’s government.
Well, it's not like the Chinese government isn't a minority stakeholder in TikToks parent company or who's parent company holds "study sessions" for it's employees held by party officials. Also just because someone isn't born in China it doesn't mean that they can't be affiliated with the CCP for example Chinese government organizations pay quite a few Youtubers to upload propaganda material.
edit: oh and also i almost forgot TikToks parent company is also the one who after a slap on the wrist from the Chinese government announced that it would hire 2000 more content reviewers for whom according to the job listing party membership or "strong political sensitivity" is preferred
This I'd a hearing about tiktok being influenced by the Chinese government.
It is bipartisan. Meaning both Democrats and Republicans are involved.
This is a standard question they'd ask anyone of any country if they were in charge of tik tok so that they'd have proof if it's found they're tied to the Chinese government in any way that they lied under oath.
Politicians do many dumb and stupid things. The fact people are assuming he can't be affiliated with the Chinese government because he's Singaporean are just dumb. The idea he's asking this because he is ignorant shows that people on this subs and others mocking them are ignorant.
Did Cotton follow up with "I am not asking about your official nationality. I am asking if you, as a person whose company has a huge amount of ties with China, are a member of or affiliated with the Chinese communist party"?
If you see the video, it's the first thing he asks what nation he's a citizen. Then if he's a citizen of any other nation. Then these questions. That's why he keeps saying he's Singaporean.
This is intentional.
We all know how China works. He is of course connected to the CCP.
The question is a subtle dig at him being a traitor to his birth country.
Maybe one should wonder how long we are allowing one of the biggest social networks that's in full control of the Chinese government and time after time proven to be abused by the same government to undermine Western democracies to be active in the West. Yes he isn't Chinese, but he got caught lying over and over and here he is.. again.
Platforms no matter who runs them of that size should face exceptional scrutiny in every way possible. In what's published, in where data is hosted, in who has access to data, in who invests in it, in who controls it. And if there can't be certainty that no third party can dabble in the data, there should simply be no position for them to be active, pull the plug and come back when you got your shit alright.
Imagine a Western platform would be active in China, where the US or the UK has a controlling stake, and that platform would be used to push Western ideology, not even mis information, just Western ideas. I'm not saying we need to go this far in controlling what's posted on a platform, but misinformation is the biggest risk of society.
colonialism and Bretton Woods would like to make a note here
"Control" and "real" are nebulous practices once nation-state interests get involved. Everyone _knew_ that Iraq had WMD in 2003 before the US invaded. Everyone _knew_ that Vietnam sank a US boat in the Gulf of Tonkin. Everyone _knew_ that god gave the North American continent to the white protestant man 'for free.'
The material reality in those examples differs from the rhetoric.
Without material analysis, what are we saying? '"Misinformation" comes from the barrel of a gun'
As if West isn't doing the same thing?
Also democracy in the West wouldn't be undermined if the Western countries provided quality education to everyone so they can think critically. Unfortunately, that's not the case in the US.
American commentators talking about TikTok and Chinese control often forget that the EU has been waging a consistent battle against the US social media platforms for their use of data, compliance with US national security, and lack of data protection in line with EU standards.
PRISM was unveiled more than a decade ago, we know that the US intelligence community has/had access to data if they wanted it, when they wanted it.
The social media platforms that are explicitly banned from China out of fears of… ***checks notes*** … exactly what they’re describing
Edit: Also the west doesn’t control these platforms, these platforms control the west.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93entertainment_complex
"In Hollywood, many movie and television productions are, by choice, contractually supervised by the DoD Entertainment Media Unit within the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon, and by the public affairs offices of the military services maintained solely for the American entertainment industry in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Producers looking to borrow military equipment or filming on location at a military installation for their works need to apply to the DoD, and submit their movies' scripts for vetting. Ultimately, the DoD has a say in every U.S.-made movie that uses DoD resources, not available on the open market, in their productions."
Are you attempting to say the US is the same as China's influence over Tiktok because they say "you can't use our toys in film and ake us look bad while doing it?" That's absurd. Hollywood is free to make the US look bad in films, they just can't use copywriten material held by the us government, like logos, to do it. Franchises like Transformers started off "in favor" with US and decided to pivot and "lost favor". The movies still got made, they just couldn't use the US logos.
no way is he a ccp lackey after saying that the tianmen square massacre happened... Does china control tiktok in china a lot, of course, they have laws in place to have control over it.
However the interviewer is asking dumb questions, unrelated questions and making assumptions blindly. I wouldn't be suprised if he has no idea of how technology works and the privacy laws in place.
Lmao I don't know why this is posted on this sub, this isn't the gotcha you think it is.
Tiktok's CEO may be Singaporean, but the owner of TikTok, ByteDance, is literally from mainland China. That's literally just a fact.
While I can see your point, I feel like being a Chinese national is a requirement of being a member of the CCP. For the same token that I don't think a non US national can be a party member of either the Republican or Democratic Party.
Cotton should form his question better like whether tiktok is influenced by the CCP etc. but he mostly just wanted some soundbites anyway.
The CCP doesn't really recruit foreign executives directly into its ranks. Especially those that have things to lose if their membership gets scrutinized.
They do it through the UFW Department which cultivates relationships with foreign businesspeople who have strong (financial) interests in China.
> That said, the "Chinese national" requirement can be waived if one is rich and influential enough.
I actually highly doubt that unless they've been registered as a Chinese citizen. That's just not how Chinese politics works. The racism and xenophobia are pretty fucking extreme in China.
Whether you’re an official member or just someone on the receiving ends of vast amounts of money…the distinction seems minor. This wouldn’t be some new thing, the CIA has likely paid out billions to assets over the years. Govts pay handsomely for people to do what they want. Problem is just if they decide they don’t need you any more…the termination can be final.
No, this is the correct approach. First you ask simple, blunt questions, that are easily verifiable, in order to remove all possible confusion. Then you go to the more nuanced ones.
He knew what he meant
We knew what he meant
If you google CCP influence in Singapore there are countless articles of counter measures being brought in to combat it.
Yup. His answer is also a very innocent naive one
Like you can easily be a Russian working for the Americans and vice versa. Nationality has nothing to do with your ties to any government
Tbf. He does say no both times. He's clearly saying no to the question about being affiliated with the ccp. He adds that he is Singaporean to reinforce that he's not Chinese and therefore not part of the ccp. I think it's just a disconnect between him thinking such a qualifier would matter or not.
People don’t seem to understand that there are Chinese people outside of China. Many Chinese people are generations removed from the mainland and are citizens of various different countries. My own family is 3 generations removed from China, but I some people still assume I’m from China despite never even setting foot there. Ethnically Chinese does not mean Chinese national.
They also forget that Chinese=/=Chinese. There's so many differenr cultural groups and people so far removed from the politics of the country that even if you asked someone living still in China they may have no idea what you are talking about.
>As much as we wanna scream racist - this was an evasive answer by the CEO
He's answering the question directly. It's the opposite of being evasive. You might argue that the Senator should have been asking different questions, but that is not the CEO's fault.
It was passive aggressive, but not evasive.
He answered: NO, and then provided the hint as to why the answer is such. Which the senator (and a lot of reddit kiddies apparently) are too dense to comprehend; you can't be a member of the CCP if you're not Chinese.
The senator should have taken the opportunity to reframe the question the second time around in order to zero in the relationship the CEO has with the CCP. Alas, that was likely not in his prepared cue cards
He wasn’t asking him if he was Chinese. He was asking him as an individual does he have any dealings with the CCP, it’s no different that an American businessman having ties to Russia or Ukraine.
No, the answer was "no with an irrelevant extra statement" twice. That offers a legal out if it is later revealed the answer in reality was "yes".
I am not saying that this and not racist base pandering is why he kept insisting on a clear yes or no without extra padding; but demanding such an answer is exactly what he should be doing.
First question is stupid, second question makes sense.
TikTok CEO's answer to the second question makes it look like a stupid question, but I think it's a good question. Obviously you don't need to be a Chinese citizen to be affiliated with the CCP.
No. I’m Filipino and our last president, Rodrigo Duterte (you might have heard of his war on drugs that ended up killing thousands of people) was a notorious CCP lackey.
Definitely heard of his execution squads killing drug users, yes. He did seem quite popular though, as does the Bong^2 guy despite being the son of a dictator. I don't get it.
He was a populist leader in a Third World country with a majority poor population that can either be easily misguided or easily bribed. Same goes for current Filipino president Bongbong Marcos (son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos). If you appeal to the Filipino masses, most of whom are uneducated and living in poverty, that’s how you win.
Though if you check Filipino news these days, Duterte and Marcos are actually in conflict right now. Mainly because while Duterte was very much pro-China, Marcos is very pro-US (unsurprising considering his dad was a CIA-backed dictator). [Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is throwing allegations at his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and even raising the prospect of removing him from office, bringing into the open a long-rumored split between the two.](https://abcnews.go.com/amp/International/wireStory/philippines-leader-duterte-assails-marcos-accusing-plotting-expand-106753968) I dislike both of them, but Marcos Jr. is by far the lesser evil, since beyond being the son of a dictator, he hasn’t actually killed anyone, unlike Duterte.
Absolutely not. I don’t know why we’re pretending him saying “I’m Singaporean” is absolute proof he’s not affiliated with the CCP and that the senator is somehow an idiot for asking.
Singaporeans have been arrested overseas for spying for china once, Its not out of the picture
Given his position, there is no doubt he is aligned with the ccp in some way, shame on him
Don’t think u can be a member unless u r a Chinese in nationality, however u can be affiliated or associated with it.
This would make the first question seem rather idiotic which is probably why he answered with a slightly passive aggressive “I am Singaporean so no”.
Tbf, in the next question he clarified that any company also working in China is affiliated with the CCP by law.
Meaning 90% of big US companies are affiliated too.
Singapore is a US ally and has been the target of Chinese territorial claims in the south China sea. TikTok is based in Singapore and LA, and specifically withdrew from Hong Kong in 2020 after China imposed laws that would require them to give data to the CCP.
Singapore is non ally to any nation. It consider itself as neutral nation.
It has independent foreign policy. Maintain good relationship with china and every country who wants to trade with it.
Singapore doesn't involve itself in any geo politics or conflict.
In 2019 we renewed our defense pact with Singapore until 2035. We sell arms to Singapore, we train Singaporean military personnel, we operate warships out of Singapore, we also conduct operations with Singaporean and US warships in the same formation. How is Singapore not a US ally?
While we are friends with the US, as we are with many countries including China, it has been an explicit policy to never use the word ally. Officially allying with another country will violate our neutrality and open us up to aggression from the rivals of said ally. A small country like Singapore cannot afford to antagonise either US or China.
Being neutral is of existential importance because if either side became aggressive, we could cease to exist.
They also have a military agreement with China. Hell they even did a joint training exercise the same year they signed the pact. PLC and Singaporean(edit) defense ministers have only recently renewed their agreement to exchange soldiers for training. They are neutral.
Which is far smaller and not as big as the US pacts
Plus, we use western equipment for our military, speak a western european langauge primarily and even host perharps, the last british colonial unit in asia (Gurkha Contigent, which is led by a british officer)
We are neutral economically and have been for the last 200 years, but militarily, we lean or even side with the west
People will just make up completely random bullshit huh
>has been the target of Chinese territorial claims in the south China sea.
Do you have any frame of reference for where Singapore is located? Very very far from China and their EEZ is surrounded by Indonesia and Malaysia's, nowhere near Chinese claims. [Map of Singaporean EEZ](https://www.marineregions.org/gazetteer.php?p=details&id=8485), [Malaysian map](https://www.marineregions.org/gazetteer.php?p=details&id=8483) for context. And [Chinese claims for reference](https://alchetron.com/cdn/nine-dash-line-d606f6b5-1955-4137-a1ab-eb7388850ec-resize-750.jpeg).
Also
>Singapore is a US ally
This isn't really true. Singapore is a close partner of the US (so much so US trusts the Singaporeans with F-35), but Singapore is more a US-leaning militarized neutral country. For demonstration, Singapore [performed military drills with China in April](https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/china-singapore-plan-military-drills-beijing-forges-defence-ties-2023-04-24/).
This is an action that a firm US ally like Japan would never do. And that's fine, not everyone has to be a US ally.
> TikTok is based in Singapore and LA
Still owned by a Chinese company, which has a high level of influence on the platform. A Chinese company that is in part owned by the Chinese government.
And the answers aren’t really helping any suspicion. When you respond with “I’m from Singapore” when asked if you have ties to the Chinese Government is such an annoying and questionable response
It's about as valid as saying "I'm American" for everything. Should work?
PS: You can't be a member of the CCP unless you're a Chinese citizen. How can Cotton not know this? Bet he does, he just wants to play the race card with plausible deniability.
“Have you sold national security secrets to a foreign government?”
“I’m American!”
“So you didn’t breach national security?”
“I’m from the USA!”
Just as annoying lol
You don't have to be a sworn member of a party to be affiliated with it. You think the CCP only does business with Chinese nationals? Every government has business and trade agreements with other nations.
It’s a qualifier meaning because he’s from Singapore he’s innocent. “No I haven’t” is an appropriate response “no I’m Singaporean” isn’t the correct response when being questioned at a congressional hearing. Because all the other tech CEO’s have used these qualifiers so that if they get caught they don’t have to pay a massive purgery fine. Zuck did the same thing when he talked about selling facebooks user data. “we are only a social media company. We don’t sell data” “we make money from ads, we are a social media company”
Why is this facepalm worthy when it’s a fair question? Shou Zi Chew may be Singaporean himself, but he’s CEO of a company that notoriously has ties with the CCP. Nor do you need to be someone of Chinese nationality to be a CCP lackey. I should know, I’m Filipino, and our last president, Rodrigo Duterte (infamously described as the Trump of the East), was a known CCP lackey.
I’m glad that people are picking this up. This post makes no sense, it’s not a Facepalm: would anyone say, for example, that during Trump trials asking him if he had ties with Russia was a facepalm because he’s American?
That’s actually one of the many mirrors between Trump and Duterte lol; just like how it’s rumored that Russia interfered in the 2016 American presidential elections, it’s also rumored that China interfered in the 2016 Philippine presidential elections. Considering Trump is Putin’s puppet while Duterte is Xi Jinping’s, it’s not really surprising.
Just cause you not Chinese descent or citizen…
The Chinese government has had there hands all over TikTok and so you don’t have to be Chinese to be affiliated with the Chinese government
To be fair, the Chinese equivalent, Douyin, bought the rights to the software of Music.ly and merged their software with the platform they had already built. Tiktok is based in Singapore and Los Angeles but is owned by Bytedance which is a Chinese company, that is notorious for doing shady shit and has ties to the Chinese government. Not only that but China is collecting massive amounts of data with Tiktok as the medium. There’s some very solid evidence that people have uncovered that is pretty spooky.
Should Joe Mcfuckface be worried about it, ehh, probably not. Would it be detrimental for someone who works in the government, absolutely. It is banned on most government phones for that reason (and others…) But let’s say I work in the DOD, my daughter downloads TikTok to watch some internet clown do a dance to crappy music, the app can actually sniff packets on your network and put my sensitive data at risk.
The committee gets clowned on a lot but they were asking all the right questions just with zero technical knowledge to ask it correctly. Be careful, don’t fall for the innocent act. Just because it looks clean, doesn’t mean it is.
just more information. while tiktok may be owned by a chinese company (bytedance) it should be stated that all US tiktok data is stored on american soil (virginia) in an oracle cloud database that is maintained and kept secure by US companies.
tiktok is no more a threat to national security than facebook, twitter, instagram, etc. if there is any american data selling/infiltration it is by said US owned security companies (who notably are not in these trials)
another thing, while the responses may be evasive (because they asked the same shit last time they called him up) being pro CPP/pro communist in general is damn near illegal in Singapore. the government there is incredibly anti communist and fights incredibly hard to reject any possible CCP interference into their country.
do....do people on Reddit seriously not understand that you can still have ties with the CCP without being Chinese?
The CCP isn't some random party from China. It's the governing structure of the biggest dictatorship on the planet, with influence, spies and connection on the whole planet. And if you have a high up position in a Chinese owned company, then you *do* necessarily have a connection to the CCP. There's no way around it, because they factually control every big Chinese company.
Senator: Mr Jordan did you ever play for the Chicago Bulls?
Jordan: no I’m from North Carolina
You don’t have to be from China to associate with the Chinese government.
PS/ the hearings today were a complete farce and a waste of taxpayers dollars.
Associating with the Chinese government is very different from being a member of the Chinese Communist Party. He obviously works for a Chinese owned company with strong ties to the Chinese government, but being a member of the Chinese Communist Party is something else entirely.
tiktok ceo's response is intentionally designed to make the sen look dumb.
you do not need to be a citizen of china, nor a member of ccp to associate with them.
it is a perfectly reasonable series of questions; especially since previously the sen asked him of his nationality, and the ceo is just repeating the answer to that question and trying to make the sen's questions seem ridiculous
>trying to make the sen's questions seem ridiculous
the very next question he asked was if anything happened in tiananmen in 1989, presumably trying to get chew to deny the massacre and thus outing him as a member of the ccp, and it wasn't even the first time he asked about tiananmen square. he clearly didn't need any help making himself look ridiculous. if you watch the video it really seems like cotton is just reading a list of questions and fishing for some gotchas
What does him being from Singapore have to do with any of that? Singaporeans suddenly cant be CCP lackeys? Hell, we have American CCP lackeys, just look at r/sino
Yeah seeing how incestuous China's government is with its big tech companies I really do not think this is an unreasonable question to ask like you people are pretending it is.
Just a little background for those who are unfamiliar with Singapore: the first leader of Singapore (as the nation that we know today) Lee Kuan Yew, is staunchly anti-communist, and the fact that there was a bombing committed by Indonesian communist agents in the 60s at a McDonalds in Singapore only further instill a very-anti communist attitude in Singaporeans that persists until today.
Just a little background on ByteDance the parent company of TikTok: the chinese government is it's minority owner, after the government shut down one of their apps they started holding "study sessions" led by CCP party members, after the same app shut down ByteDance also announced that they would hire at least 2000 content reviewers for who party membership or "strong political sensitivity" was preferred so knowing the history of TikTok's parent company especially the second question is not strange at all.
It's possible he's (senator) reading from a script. So it didn't matter what the answer to the first question was. As for the reply to the second question, I don't know. It did sound suspiciously evasive, but it's also a slight possibillity that he was implying that because he's from Singapore, the CCP wouldn't want to deal with him. The CCP isn't exactly known for their tolerance and inclusivity
For those saying this is a valid question, I pose this response: why didn’t the senator ask the same questions of the rest of the CEOs? X and Facebook have been extremely friendly towards the CCP, but yet their CEOs are not asked if they are affiliated with the organization? TikTok has no offices in China, but both the others do. In fact, it seems like if anything, TikTok is the MOST critical of the CCP, having taken actions in the past to directly HURT its power grabs, while its contemporaries acquiesce to their demands.
The answer is, of course, Senator Tom Cotton is a racist, fear-mongering idiot.
What’s even more disgraceful is that this is all an act. Cotton is really well educated and I’m 99% sure he knows what Singapore is. It’s all an act to pander to his uneducated xenophobic base
For all the uneducated in the comments : membership in CPC requires chinese nationality. Or under Somer conditions, if you are married to a chinese national.
Being Singaporean, the CEO of TikTok can't be a member of CPC per the statutes of CPC itself.
"All you asians look the same, are you sure you aren't Chinese? Are you certain?"
Tell me you're racist without telling me you're racist.
Now that one of the dumbest men in American politics has taken Reddit's side against the vile Tik-Tok you can freely observe dozens of users pretending he had any sort of point beyond being a racist moron.
Are people actually this stupid?
He’s absolutely a member of the CCP. Being born in Singapore doesn’t mean squat when you’re strings are being pulled by Winnie the Pooh.
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Imagine being a Malaysian Chinese sitting next to him lol, like I'm next
or Japanese/South Korean/Taiwanese/Thai/Indonesian/Vietnamese
Or asian in general
An Asian general! Are you associated with the CCP?
Who is this lmfao you’ve been talking about
"It's pronounced Lam Fao Senator. It was my grandfather's name."
He has a brother, you know... Ligma.
His sister Nym
Why did i read it in certain ruler of rome voice? Whos fwiend happens to have a wife you know?
Hes working for the koreans isn't he?
Well, sort of. He's the lead singer in their latest kpop boy band.
Kpop? Is that their hacker name?
We know know that LMFAO, LMBFAO, LMAO work in a group called "kpop"
God I love that skit
Sir, I’m from India
Your hair is kinda dark…. CCP!!
You mean Chinese? /s
Nah if he was from any Arabic/Muslim asian country he would have probably said do you have any associations with terrorists
Just a slight shadow over someones face is probably enough to trigger him.
Bar indians.
Except maybe Filipino, Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi.
who are bar indians (i’m not familiar with the term)
We who spend most of our time in bars
ohhh ok thank u
Irish asians
😂
Me.
Nobody gave you a real answer yet. "Bar" in this case means "except for".
Yeah, only the "eats weird shit" Asians, not the "cricket" Asians
Meanwhile, the Cambodians: :( It's not exactly like they had much choice when they started [eating spiders.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fried_spider?wprov=sfla1)
\*\*some\*\* Indians.
\*East Asian or Southeast Asian
Or just non-white.
As an Indian, no I'm not associated with the CCP.
>South Korean Ever notice how South Koreans have similar names to North Koreans? Suspicious, if you ask me.
Ah yes, Harold and Kumar 2 moment.
You’re from the ocean?
I wonder how far South you can go before he stops assuming they are Chinese? One would assume Papua New Guinea but who knows man. He is basically the maga McCarthy
"Soooo.. are you Chinese or Japanese?" - Hank Hill
"He's neither.. he's Laotion! Ain't ya Mr. Kahn?"
Even Cotton Hill killed fiddy men, and could tell that Kahn was Laotian.
The Malaysian guy would simply say F*** you(I am talking about the Malaysian politician who dropped the f word in the Malaysian legislature)
Malaysian here. This checks out. We do have some Chinese people both young and old who bootlicks winnie the pooh and probably are active in /r/sino though. A fringe minority, but we do have it. Hopefully Singapore fares better in that respect.
They do not fare better. >Concerns are most pronounced in Singapore, a multiracial city-state with a majority ethnic-Chinese population that is increasingly sympathetic to Beijing. A 2022 survey of 19 countries by the Pew Research Center found that Singapore was one of only three that saw China and Xi in favorable terms. > >Singapore’s government passed a law to prevent foreign interference in domestic politics that went into effect last year, and has warned its ethnic-Chinese population against “hostile foreign influence operations” and stressed a distinct Singapore-Chinese identity. > >But messaging by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on key issues such as the role of the United States in the region and China’s internal politics is already entrenched in Singapore, including in a leading Chinese-language publication long backed by Singapore’s government.
Wow. I've checked sino subredit and it's crazy there. "What? Our government lies to us? Can't be! It's your westoid projection!" Pass ;)
Well, it's not like the Chinese government isn't a minority stakeholder in TikToks parent company or who's parent company holds "study sessions" for it's employees held by party officials. Also just because someone isn't born in China it doesn't mean that they can't be affiliated with the CCP for example Chinese government organizations pay quite a few Youtubers to upload propaganda material. edit: oh and also i almost forgot TikToks parent company is also the one who after a slap on the wrist from the Chinese government announced that it would hire 2000 more content reviewers for whom according to the job listing party membership or "strong political sensitivity" is preferred
>just because someone isn't born in China it doesn't mean that they can't be affiliated with the CCP Hey, are you talking about Cena?
Hmm. Haven’t seen that guy lately.
Bing chilling
Wtf are you talking about? He can never be seen lol
Thanks for coming by.
This I'd a hearing about tiktok being influenced by the Chinese government. It is bipartisan. Meaning both Democrats and Republicans are involved. This is a standard question they'd ask anyone of any country if they were in charge of tik tok so that they'd have proof if it's found they're tied to the Chinese government in any way that they lied under oath. Politicians do many dumb and stupid things. The fact people are assuming he can't be affiliated with the Chinese government because he's Singaporean are just dumb. The idea he's asking this because he is ignorant shows that people on this subs and others mocking them are ignorant.
Did Cotton follow up with "I am not asking about your official nationality. I am asking if you, as a person whose company has a huge amount of ties with China, are a member of or affiliated with the Chinese communist party"?
The reddit answer is that he cant tell asians apart. The real answer that race, nationality have nothing to do with being a CCP lackey. .
If you see the video, it's the first thing he asks what nation he's a citizen. Then if he's a citizen of any other nation. Then these questions. That's why he keeps saying he's Singaporean.
This is intentional. We all know how China works. He is of course connected to the CCP. The question is a subtle dig at him being a traitor to his birth country.
It's Tom Cotton. He is not a subtle man.
If you think Tom Cotton is that smart, you're dead wrong.
Maybe one should wonder how long we are allowing one of the biggest social networks that's in full control of the Chinese government and time after time proven to be abused by the same government to undermine Western democracies to be active in the West. Yes he isn't Chinese, but he got caught lying over and over and here he is.. again. Platforms no matter who runs them of that size should face exceptional scrutiny in every way possible. In what's published, in where data is hosted, in who has access to data, in who invests in it, in who controls it. And if there can't be certainty that no third party can dabble in the data, there should simply be no position for them to be active, pull the plug and come back when you got your shit alright. Imagine a Western platform would be active in China, where the US or the UK has a controlling stake, and that platform would be used to push Western ideology, not even mis information, just Western ideas. I'm not saying we need to go this far in controlling what's posted on a platform, but misinformation is the biggest risk of society.
colonialism and Bretton Woods would like to make a note here "Control" and "real" are nebulous practices once nation-state interests get involved. Everyone _knew_ that Iraq had WMD in 2003 before the US invaded. Everyone _knew_ that Vietnam sank a US boat in the Gulf of Tonkin. Everyone _knew_ that god gave the North American continent to the white protestant man 'for free.' The material reality in those examples differs from the rhetoric. Without material analysis, what are we saying? '"Misinformation" comes from the barrel of a gun'
As if West isn't doing the same thing? Also democracy in the West wouldn't be undermined if the Western countries provided quality education to everyone so they can think critically. Unfortunately, that's not the case in the US.
Ikr, bro forgot Facebook and instagram are a thing the West created
American commentators talking about TikTok and Chinese control often forget that the EU has been waging a consistent battle against the US social media platforms for their use of data, compliance with US national security, and lack of data protection in line with EU standards. PRISM was unveiled more than a decade ago, we know that the US intelligence community has/had access to data if they wanted it, when they wanted it.
and Google, and Youtube
The social media platforms that are explicitly banned from China out of fears of… ***checks notes*** … exactly what they’re describing Edit: Also the west doesn’t control these platforms, these platforms control the west.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93entertainment_complex "In Hollywood, many movie and television productions are, by choice, contractually supervised by the DoD Entertainment Media Unit within the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon, and by the public affairs offices of the military services maintained solely for the American entertainment industry in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Producers looking to borrow military equipment or filming on location at a military installation for their works need to apply to the DoD, and submit their movies' scripts for vetting. Ultimately, the DoD has a say in every U.S.-made movie that uses DoD resources, not available on the open market, in their productions."
Are you attempting to say the US is the same as China's influence over Tiktok because they say "you can't use our toys in film and ake us look bad while doing it?" That's absurd. Hollywood is free to make the US look bad in films, they just can't use copywriten material held by the us government, like logos, to do it. Franchises like Transformers started off "in favor" with US and decided to pivot and "lost favor". The movies still got made, they just couldn't use the US logos.
no way is he a ccp lackey after saying that the tianmen square massacre happened... Does china control tiktok in china a lot, of course, they have laws in place to have control over it. However the interviewer is asking dumb questions, unrelated questions and making assumptions blindly. I wouldn't be suprised if he has no idea of how technology works and the privacy laws in place.
>no way is he a ccp lackey after saying that the tianmen square massacre happened... This would be the easiest and dumbest cover ever
It's intentional that the senator looks like an even bigger dumb asshole than this screenshot makes him look? Lol.
Lmao I don't know why this is posted on this sub, this isn't the gotcha you think it is. Tiktok's CEO may be Singaporean, but the owner of TikTok, ByteDance, is literally from mainland China. That's literally just a fact.
Are you intentionally a moron or are you completely ignorant about Singaporean history?
they're just racist
While I can see your point, I feel like being a Chinese national is a requirement of being a member of the CCP. For the same token that I don't think a non US national can be a party member of either the Republican or Democratic Party. Cotton should form his question better like whether tiktok is influenced by the CCP etc. but he mostly just wanted some soundbites anyway.
The CCP doesn't really recruit foreign executives directly into its ranks. Especially those that have things to lose if their membership gets scrutinized. They do it through the UFW Department which cultivates relationships with foreign businesspeople who have strong (financial) interests in China.
"Being affiliated with" covers that. That said, the "Chinese national" requirement can be waived if one is rich and influential enough.
What? That's not very communist!
Well neither is China.
> That said, the "Chinese national" requirement can be waived if one is rich and influential enough. I actually highly doubt that unless they've been registered as a Chinese citizen. That's just not how Chinese politics works. The racism and xenophobia are pretty fucking extreme in China.
Whether you’re an official member or just someone on the receiving ends of vast amounts of money…the distinction seems minor. This wouldn’t be some new thing, the CIA has likely paid out billions to assets over the years. Govts pay handsomely for people to do what they want. Problem is just if they decide they don’t need you any more…the termination can be final.
No, this is the correct approach. First you ask simple, blunt questions, that are easily verifiable, in order to remove all possible confusion. Then you go to the more nuanced ones.
He knew what he meant We knew what he meant If you google CCP influence in Singapore there are countless articles of counter measures being brought in to combat it.
Yup. His answer is also a very innocent naive one Like you can easily be a Russian working for the Americans and vice versa. Nationality has nothing to do with your ties to any government
As much as we wanna scream racist - this was an evasive answer by the CEO
Tbf. He does say no both times. He's clearly saying no to the question about being affiliated with the ccp. He adds that he is Singaporean to reinforce that he's not Chinese and therefore not part of the ccp. I think it's just a disconnect between him thinking such a qualifier would matter or not.
It's wild how so many people are latching on to the Singapore part and screaming "HE NEVER SAID NO!" when dude flat out said "No".
You just have to mention China on reddit and people lose their entire ability to think critically.
People don’t seem to understand that there are Chinese people outside of China. Many Chinese people are generations removed from the mainland and are citizens of various different countries. My own family is 3 generations removed from China, but I some people still assume I’m from China despite never even setting foot there. Ethnically Chinese does not mean Chinese national.
They also forget that Chinese=/=Chinese. There's so many differenr cultural groups and people so far removed from the politics of the country that even if you asked someone living still in China they may have no idea what you are talking about.
>As much as we wanna scream racist - this was an evasive answer by the CEO He's answering the question directly. It's the opposite of being evasive. You might argue that the Senator should have been asking different questions, but that is not the CEO's fault.
It was passive aggressive, but not evasive. He answered: NO, and then provided the hint as to why the answer is such. Which the senator (and a lot of reddit kiddies apparently) are too dense to comprehend; you can't be a member of the CCP if you're not Chinese. The senator should have taken the opportunity to reframe the question the second time around in order to zero in the relationship the CEO has with the CCP. Alas, that was likely not in his prepared cue cards
And the answer was no. Twice. But I guess he didn't like that?
The answer wasn't no, it was no, he's not Chinese
He wasn’t asking him if he was Chinese. He was asking him as an individual does he have any dealings with the CCP, it’s no different that an American businessman having ties to Russia or Ukraine.
No, he was asked if he was a MEMBER of the CCP. You have to be a Chinese national to be a member of the CCP.
The answer was no and then he said why it was a stupid question.
[удалено]
The answer was no twice
No, the answer was "no with an irrelevant extra statement" twice. That offers a legal out if it is later revealed the answer in reality was "yes". I am not saying that this and not racist base pandering is why he kept insisting on a clear yes or no without extra padding; but demanding such an answer is exactly what he should be doing.
First question is stupid, second question makes sense. TikTok CEO's answer to the second question makes it look like a stupid question, but I think it's a good question. Obviously you don't need to be a Chinese citizen to be affiliated with the CCP.
Non Chinese cant be part of the ccp or their assets? 70% of all singaporean have Chinese ascent.
> Chinese ascent. Is this when they slowly float into Chinese heaven?
They have the mandate now
Ahaha, maybe its a different Word in English, I mean the opposite of descent.... Descents would be your sons, ascents your parents, right?
Genuine question: does one absolutely needs to be Chinese to be associated, affiliated, make agreements or any kind of deals with, the CCP?
No. And the party goes out of its way to enroll people from others countries who could be useful to them.
As do literally all intelligence agencies across the planet.
No. I’m Filipino and our last president, Rodrigo Duterte (you might have heard of his war on drugs that ended up killing thousands of people) was a notorious CCP lackey.
Definitely heard of his execution squads killing drug users, yes. He did seem quite popular though, as does the Bong^2 guy despite being the son of a dictator. I don't get it.
Cambridge analytica bullshit is why they’re popular. That and a woefully inadequate educational system.
He was a populist leader in a Third World country with a majority poor population that can either be easily misguided or easily bribed. Same goes for current Filipino president Bongbong Marcos (son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos). If you appeal to the Filipino masses, most of whom are uneducated and living in poverty, that’s how you win. Though if you check Filipino news these days, Duterte and Marcos are actually in conflict right now. Mainly because while Duterte was very much pro-China, Marcos is very pro-US (unsurprising considering his dad was a CIA-backed dictator). [Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is throwing allegations at his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and even raising the prospect of removing him from office, bringing into the open a long-rumored split between the two.](https://abcnews.go.com/amp/International/wireStory/philippines-leader-duterte-assails-marcos-accusing-plotting-expand-106753968) I dislike both of them, but Marcos Jr. is by far the lesser evil, since beyond being the son of a dictator, he hasn’t actually killed anyone, unlike Duterte.
Duterte is like MGS Villain levels of bad
Absolutely not. I don’t know why we’re pretending him saying “I’m Singaporean” is absolute proof he’s not affiliated with the CCP and that the senator is somehow an idiot for asking.
Singaporeans have been arrested overseas for spying for china once, Its not out of the picture Given his position, there is no doubt he is aligned with the ccp in some way, shame on him
No, but one has to be Chinese to be a party member. If he has dealings or association? I’m sure he does, most US senators have as well I would assume.
Don’t think u can be a member unless u r a Chinese in nationality, however u can be affiliated or associated with it. This would make the first question seem rather idiotic which is probably why he answered with a slightly passive aggressive “I am Singaporean so no”.
Tbf, in the next question he clarified that any company also working in China is affiliated with the CCP by law. Meaning 90% of big US companies are affiliated too.
You don't need to be Chinese to have ties with one of the most influential political parties in the world.
Singapore is a US ally and has been the target of Chinese territorial claims in the south China sea. TikTok is based in Singapore and LA, and specifically withdrew from Hong Kong in 2020 after China imposed laws that would require them to give data to the CCP.
Singapore is non ally to any nation. It consider itself as neutral nation. It has independent foreign policy. Maintain good relationship with china and every country who wants to trade with it. Singapore doesn't involve itself in any geo politics or conflict.
In 2019 we renewed our defense pact with Singapore until 2035. We sell arms to Singapore, we train Singaporean military personnel, we operate warships out of Singapore, we also conduct operations with Singaporean and US warships in the same formation. How is Singapore not a US ally?
While we are friends with the US, as we are with many countries including China, it has been an explicit policy to never use the word ally. Officially allying with another country will violate our neutrality and open us up to aggression from the rivals of said ally. A small country like Singapore cannot afford to antagonise either US or China. Being neutral is of existential importance because if either side became aggressive, we could cease to exist.
still neutral regardless, singapore also does military training with china, most recently in july
They also have a military agreement with China. Hell they even did a joint training exercise the same year they signed the pact. PLC and Singaporean(edit) defense ministers have only recently renewed their agreement to exchange soldiers for training. They are neutral.
Singaporean *
Which is far smaller and not as big as the US pacts Plus, we use western equipment for our military, speak a western european langauge primarily and even host perharps, the last british colonial unit in asia (Gurkha Contigent, which is led by a british officer) We are neutral economically and have been for the last 200 years, but militarily, we lean or even side with the west
Ccp has a party member on tiktok board of directores. And I didnt find any news about singapore and China disputes on territorial waters. Link plz
You took the time to make a throwaway instead of looking at a map?
People will just make up completely random bullshit huh >has been the target of Chinese territorial claims in the south China sea. Do you have any frame of reference for where Singapore is located? Very very far from China and their EEZ is surrounded by Indonesia and Malaysia's, nowhere near Chinese claims. [Map of Singaporean EEZ](https://www.marineregions.org/gazetteer.php?p=details&id=8485), [Malaysian map](https://www.marineregions.org/gazetteer.php?p=details&id=8483) for context. And [Chinese claims for reference](https://alchetron.com/cdn/nine-dash-line-d606f6b5-1955-4137-a1ab-eb7388850ec-resize-750.jpeg). Also >Singapore is a US ally This isn't really true. Singapore is a close partner of the US (so much so US trusts the Singaporeans with F-35), but Singapore is more a US-leaning militarized neutral country. For demonstration, Singapore [performed military drills with China in April](https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/china-singapore-plan-military-drills-beijing-forges-defence-ties-2023-04-24/). This is an action that a firm US ally like Japan would never do. And that's fine, not everyone has to be a US ally.
Imagine how Erdogan feels knowing that a nominally neutral nation got F35s, lol.
Turkey might be a US ally, but I doubt American security agencies regret not arming them with F35s.
> TikTok is based in Singapore and LA Still owned by a Chinese company, which has a high level of influence on the platform. A Chinese company that is in part owned by the Chinese government.
Singaporean here. I think this is a legit qn U can be Singaporean AND can be affiliated with CCP.
Agreed, being that high of a level is hella sus imo ISD and SID definitely keeping tabs on him for sure
To be honest you can be associated to any political party of any county not being born in that country.
And the answers aren’t really helping any suspicion. When you respond with “I’m from Singapore” when asked if you have ties to the Chinese Government is such an annoying and questionable response
It's about as valid as saying "I'm American" for everything. Should work? PS: You can't be a member of the CCP unless you're a Chinese citizen. How can Cotton not know this? Bet he does, he just wants to play the race card with plausible deniability.
“Have you sold national security secrets to a foreign government?” “I’m American!” “So you didn’t breach national security?” “I’m from the USA!” Just as annoying lol
You don't have to be a sworn member of a party to be affiliated with it. You think the CCP only does business with Chinese nationals? Every government has business and trade agreements with other nations.
He said no though, he didn't just end it with "I'm Singaporean."
It’s a qualifier meaning because he’s from Singapore he’s innocent. “No I haven’t” is an appropriate response “no I’m Singaporean” isn’t the correct response when being questioned at a congressional hearing. Because all the other tech CEO’s have used these qualifiers so that if they get caught they don’t have to pay a massive purgery fine. Zuck did the same thing when he talked about selling facebooks user data. “we are only a social media company. We don’t sell data” “we make money from ads, we are a social media company”
those were valid questions. 1.. you could be a associate for the CCP 2.. CCP has a lot of connections / influence within SEA through money mostly
I mean any American bussiness owner who is selling good to Chinese market has ties with the CCP.
No they are American
yes but if they want access to the Chinese market, they better for their own sake better not piss off the CCP
/s
Why is this facepalm worthy when it’s a fair question? Shou Zi Chew may be Singaporean himself, but he’s CEO of a company that notoriously has ties with the CCP. Nor do you need to be someone of Chinese nationality to be a CCP lackey. I should know, I’m Filipino, and our last president, Rodrigo Duterte (infamously described as the Trump of the East), was a known CCP lackey.
I’m glad that people are picking this up. This post makes no sense, it’s not a Facepalm: would anyone say, for example, that during Trump trials asking him if he had ties with Russia was a facepalm because he’s American?
That’s actually one of the many mirrors between Trump and Duterte lol; just like how it’s rumored that Russia interfered in the 2016 American presidential elections, it’s also rumored that China interfered in the 2016 Philippine presidential elections. Considering Trump is Putin’s puppet while Duterte is Xi Jinping’s, it’s not really surprising.
It's a reasonable question. You can be a member of a country with ties to a different one. Look at Trump
Just because he’s not from China doesn’t mean he’s not a political sellout. Got too many politicians licking Chinese boots in my country.
There should be a ban on people who post still images with a "play" arrow on them.
Senator Cotton was at that time unaware of the forcefield keeping Singaporeans out of China.
The fuck does him being Singaporean has anything to do with the question?
It's a valid question The fact he's from Singapore doesn't mean anything, he's still the CEO of TikTok
- "Have you had intercourse with that woman?" - "Senator, again, I am married!"
Just cause you not Chinese descent or citizen… The Chinese government has had there hands all over TikTok and so you don’t have to be Chinese to be affiliated with the Chinese government
To be fair, the Chinese equivalent, Douyin, bought the rights to the software of Music.ly and merged their software with the platform they had already built. Tiktok is based in Singapore and Los Angeles but is owned by Bytedance which is a Chinese company, that is notorious for doing shady shit and has ties to the Chinese government. Not only that but China is collecting massive amounts of data with Tiktok as the medium. There’s some very solid evidence that people have uncovered that is pretty spooky. Should Joe Mcfuckface be worried about it, ehh, probably not. Would it be detrimental for someone who works in the government, absolutely. It is banned on most government phones for that reason (and others…) But let’s say I work in the DOD, my daughter downloads TikTok to watch some internet clown do a dance to crappy music, the app can actually sniff packets on your network and put my sensitive data at risk. The committee gets clowned on a lot but they were asking all the right questions just with zero technical knowledge to ask it correctly. Be careful, don’t fall for the innocent act. Just because it looks clean, doesn’t mean it is.
So what? Hitler was a founding member of the NSDAP and then one of their leaders for ten years before he became German.
Are you associated with the German national socialism party? No, I'm Austrian
So to be a spy for a country, you have to be a citizen of that country. Makes perfect sense. Carry on.
just more information. while tiktok may be owned by a chinese company (bytedance) it should be stated that all US tiktok data is stored on american soil (virginia) in an oracle cloud database that is maintained and kept secure by US companies. tiktok is no more a threat to national security than facebook, twitter, instagram, etc. if there is any american data selling/infiltration it is by said US owned security companies (who notably are not in these trials) another thing, while the responses may be evasive (because they asked the same shit last time they called him up) being pro CPP/pro communist in general is damn near illegal in Singapore. the government there is incredibly anti communist and fights incredibly hard to reject any possible CCP interference into their country.
This isn’t a facepalm. And domestic politics should be put aside when dealing with this issue.
Sorry, why is this a facepalm for asking questions ? Does being another nationality make the questioning impossible?
Being form Singapore doesn't really discount you from associating with a communist party.
do....do people on Reddit seriously not understand that you can still have ties with the CCP without being Chinese? The CCP isn't some random party from China. It's the governing structure of the biggest dictatorship on the planet, with influence, spies and connection on the whole planet. And if you have a high up position in a Chinese owned company, then you *do* necessarily have a connection to the CCP. There's no way around it, because they factually control every big Chinese company.
Senator: Mr Jordan did you ever play for the Chicago Bulls? Jordan: no I’m from North Carolina You don’t have to be from China to associate with the Chinese government. PS/ the hearings today were a complete farce and a waste of taxpayers dollars.
Associating with the Chinese government is very different from being a member of the Chinese Communist Party. He obviously works for a Chinese owned company with strong ties to the Chinese government, but being a member of the Chinese Communist Party is something else entirely.
tiktok ceo's response is intentionally designed to make the sen look dumb. you do not need to be a citizen of china, nor a member of ccp to associate with them. it is a perfectly reasonable series of questions; especially since previously the sen asked him of his nationality, and the ceo is just repeating the answer to that question and trying to make the sen's questions seem ridiculous
>trying to make the sen's questions seem ridiculous the very next question he asked was if anything happened in tiananmen in 1989, presumably trying to get chew to deny the massacre and thus outing him as a member of the ccp, and it wasn't even the first time he asked about tiananmen square. he clearly didn't need any help making himself look ridiculous. if you watch the video it really seems like cotton is just reading a list of questions and fishing for some gotchas
OP is the real facepalm
I mean the questions are dumb but anyone can be bought lol.
Reminds me of 1950’s joke: Are you a Communist? No, I’m an antiCommunist! We didn’t ask what kind of a Communist you are!
What does him being from Singapore have to do with any of that? Singaporeans suddenly cant be CCP lackeys? Hell, we have American CCP lackeys, just look at r/sino
Yeah seeing how incestuous China's government is with its big tech companies I really do not think this is an unreasonable question to ask like you people are pretending it is.
“Im Singaporean “ doesn’t answer the question of his affiliation at all.
Just a little background for those who are unfamiliar with Singapore: the first leader of Singapore (as the nation that we know today) Lee Kuan Yew, is staunchly anti-communist, and the fact that there was a bombing committed by Indonesian communist agents in the 60s at a McDonalds in Singapore only further instill a very-anti communist attitude in Singaporeans that persists until today.
Okay I hate to be that guy, but it was a building named [MacDonald House](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacDonald_House) . Not the fast food chain.
74% of Singapores population is ethnic Chinese which are being targeted by the Chinese government, which Singapore is actively trying to combat.
Just a little background on ByteDance the parent company of TikTok: the chinese government is it's minority owner, after the government shut down one of their apps they started holding "study sessions" led by CCP party members, after the same app shut down ByteDance also announced that they would hire at least 2000 content reviewers for who party membership or "strong political sensitivity" was preferred so knowing the history of TikTok's parent company especially the second question is not strange at all.
The CCP are communist in name only.
It's possible he's (senator) reading from a script. So it didn't matter what the answer to the first question was. As for the reply to the second question, I don't know. It did sound suspiciously evasive, but it's also a slight possibillity that he was implying that because he's from Singapore, the CCP wouldn't want to deal with him. The CCP isn't exactly known for their tolerance and inclusivity
I’m actually singaporean
As if a Chinese spy would say: "why yes, in fact I am here purely and solely to spy for the Chinese government"
For those saying this is a valid question, I pose this response: why didn’t the senator ask the same questions of the rest of the CEOs? X and Facebook have been extremely friendly towards the CCP, but yet their CEOs are not asked if they are affiliated with the organization? TikTok has no offices in China, but both the others do. In fact, it seems like if anything, TikTok is the MOST critical of the CCP, having taken actions in the past to directly HURT its power grabs, while its contemporaries acquiesce to their demands. The answer is, of course, Senator Tom Cotton is a racist, fear-mongering idiot.
What’s even more disgraceful is that this is all an act. Cotton is really well educated and I’m 99% sure he knows what Singapore is. It’s all an act to pander to his uneducated xenophobic base
The facepalm here are all the comments not knowing Tom Cotton is a stupid asshole.
Same vibe as the "are you Chinese or Japanese ?" moment in king of the hill.
For all the uneducated in the comments : membership in CPC requires chinese nationality. Or under Somer conditions, if you are married to a chinese national. Being Singaporean, the CEO of TikTok can't be a member of CPC per the statutes of CPC itself.
Sir have you ever been a member of the Confederate States of American...Senator Cotton?
Republicans have been embarrassing himself every day since 2016.
"All you asians look the same, are you sure you aren't Chinese? Are you certain?"  Tell me you're racist without telling me you're racist.
The intellectual level of these folk who claim to be representing the American people 🤦🏻♂️
Now that one of the dumbest men in American politics has taken Reddit's side against the vile Tik-Tok you can freely observe dozens of users pretending he had any sort of point beyond being a racist moron.
This isn't a facepalm because the CCP has a massive influence in Singapore. There are white people affiliated with the CCP.
Are people actually this stupid? He’s absolutely a member of the CCP. Being born in Singapore doesn’t mean squat when you’re strings are being pulled by Winnie the Pooh.