Biden admin moves against TikTok on security
Pentagon chiefs vow to 'change the dynamic' in Ukraine as battle losses mount
After a lengthy US national security review, Biden administration officials have told TikTok they must separate their popular social media platform from their Chinese owners or face a shutdown.
Officials of the Treasury Department’s inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CIFIUS) have implied they will seek a ban of TikTok unless Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd divests itself from TikTok, according to a Wall Street Journal report and others citing unnamed sources.
If a transaction for TikTok happens, Oracle and Microsoft are among potential buyers in a deal that would likely be valued at more than $100 billion.
TikTok has more than 100 million users in the US and has been under increasing government scrutiny over allegations its parent company in Beijing was using it to collect information on US persons.
“If protecting national security is the objective, divestment doesn’t solve the problem: a change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access,” a TikTok statement responding to the reports said.
Disinformation fears
FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Senate committee last week the Chinese owned video-sharing app presents a potential source of disinformation for the American public.
“This is a tool that is ultimately within the control the Chinese government, and to me, it screams out with national security concerns,” Wray told the Senate Intelligence Committee in a public hearing.
Most of the user-generated content on TikTok is related to popular culture or goofy, amusing memes.
In 2020, former President Donald Trump had threatened to ban TikTok unless parent company ByteDance divested the US operation. TikTok sued in federal court to prevent a forced sale and the incoming Biden administration stopped the process and undertook a new review.
Since then, political support for banning TikTok has been growing. A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate last week by Senators Mark Warner and John Thune would establish a new legal process to address TikTok and other foreign technology platforms. White House officials backed the measure.
“This legislation would empower the United States government to prevent certain foreign governments from exploiting technology services operating in the United States in a way that poses risks to Americans’ sensitive data and our national security,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on March 7.
The White House last month ordered all US government agencies and employees to remove the TikTok app from government-issued mobile devices.
In October, Forbes magazine had reported on internal company materials from ByteDance that showed the company had developed a team in Beijing to collect location data on US citizens for surveillance purposes.
The United Kingdom’s government has asked its National Cyber Security Centre to review TikTok. India’s government banned TikTok and dozens of other Chinese-made apps in 2020.
Ukraine Defense: ‘Generating Combat Power’
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley met with representatives from 40 countries in a working group that is providing Ukraine with weapons and support in its war with Russia.
“We are generating combat power to a degree that we believe that it will provide them opportunities to change the dynamics on the battlefield, at some point going forward,” Austin told reporters at a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday.
“The platforms, the training, the sustainment and maintenance that we’re providing it will make a significant difference,” he said.
Biden administration officials are coming under pressure amid reports from Ukraine that the Ukrainian army is losing large numbers of troops and running low on ammo in intense fighting with the mercenary Wagner Group and Russian forces around the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut.
“This is a grinding, attrition warfare that Russia is trying to execute,” General Milley said. “Wave after wave of Russian soldiers are thrown into the chaos of war absent any sort of synchronized coordination and direction.”
“The Russians are wantonly killing civilians in large attacks on civilian infrastructure in densely populated urban areas. Severely under-trained, poorly led, poorly equipped Russian forces are conducting mindless frontal attacks and sacrificing hundreds per day,” Milley said.
The new equipment and troops will give Ukrainian commanders “a variety of options in the future, to achieve their objectives and bring this war to a successful conclusion,” Milley said.
Sweden late last month agreed to send 10 German-made Leopard 2 main battle tanks and HAWK anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine. In total, Ukraine is to receive 150 Leopard tanks from nine countries.
Norway is working with the US to provide Ukraine with two additional NASAMS air defense units, Austin said.
The Netherlands announced on Tuesday it will provide Ukraine with drone radars and an M3 amphibious bridging system as well as two mine-sweeping vessels for use in the Black Sea after the war.
Separately, Poland, Slovakia and others are preparing to transfer MiG-29s to Ukraine, Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller said. Members of the US Congress are pushing to give Ukraine F-16s, although training Ukrainian pilots on the US fighter jets would take more time and the Biden administration has resisted.
Drone incident
Austin and Milley both condemned Russian actions that led to downing of a US reconnaissance drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday.
“This hazardous episode is part of a pattern of aggressive risky, risky and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace,” Austin said, adding he had spoken by telephone with his Russian counterpart, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
“As I've said repeatedly, it's important that great powers be models of transparency and communication and the United States will continue to fly and operate wherever international law allows,” Austin said.
Milley said the US military believes the drone sank in waters 4,000 to 5,000 feet deep in the Black Sea where the US does not presently have any naval vessels, although “friends and allies” may be called upon to recover debris. “Any recovery operations are very difficult at that depth by anyone,” he said.
Russia’s ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov warned after a meeting at the US State Department on Wednesday that Russia would view any US military flights near its borders as “openly hostile”. In Moscow, Kremlin officials said Russia would seek to retrieve the wreckage of the American drone.
Honduras to open diplomatic relations with Beijing
Honduras President Xiomara Castro announced on Twitter her government would establish official relations with China, a move that would end its ties with Taiwan.
Castro had raised the idea of cutting ties with Taiwan and starting relations with China during her electoral campaign. The decision was “a sign of my determination to fulfill the government plan and expand borders”, she said.
“We welcome the statement by the Honduran side,” China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in Beijing. “The fact that 181 countries have established diplomatic relations with China on the basis of the one-China principle fully shows that establishing diplomatic ties with China is the right choice that accords with the trend of history and our times.”
China does not maintain formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have ties with Taiwan, part of Beijing’s campaign to isolate Taiwan on the world stage. Honduras leaves Taiwan with formal diplomatic ties with only 13 nations.