TikTok is not the only China-backed app the White House is worried about

The White House and Congress are working to blunt the national-security risk from various Chinese social-media apps, beyond just Washington’s recent high-profile target TikTok, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

The national-security concerns “aren’t just limited to TikTok”, she said in an interview on Thursday. “If what we’re worried about is Chinese-backed companies being on tens of millions of American phones, including members of the military and privacy concerns, data concerns, misinformation concerns – it doesn’t just apply to TikTok.”

Raimondo, who said she is considering a trip to China this year, is among top officials in President Joe Biden’s cabinet driving efforts to counter what they see as rising economic and strategic threats from Beijing.

Her department issued broad export controls on chipmaking technology to China last year, and is leading the way in pouring about US$52 billion into the US semiconductor industry, which she frames as a key national-security resource.

“There have been times in America’s history of intense global competition with another superpower who does not share our values,” she said in the interview at Bloomberg’s office in Washington. “This is one of those times.”

Raimondo also said the administration is working carefully on scrutinising outbound investment into certain industries in China, but cautioned that the work would be slow given the risk of broader, unintended consequences, particularly impacts on pension and retirement funds.

She said afterwards that a pilot programme on outbound investment is “doable”, though would still need to be devised, and that overall, procedures to evaluate outbound investment should take “months, not years” to establish.

“We’re on it every day, talking with industry, talking with stakeholders,” she said.