“Senator, do you know where Singapore is?” one person asked. Another remarked that “just because he looks Chinese, doesn’t mean he’s Chinese.”About 75% of Singapore’s approximately 5.9 million population is ethnically Chinese, a result of Chinese immigrants moving to Singapore in the 1800s and early 1900s. Many young Singaporeans today do not identify with China as a cultural motherland.Wednesday’s hearing was Chew’s second time appearing before US lawmakers. He first testified in front of lawmakers in March 2023. That grilling lasted six hours, with lawmakers asking questions about TikTok’s data security and harmful content on the platform.Jojo Choo, an assistant marketing manager in her 30s, said she was happy to see a Singaporean appearing in Congress at first.“Initially I felt pride because the CEO of such a huge company is actually someone from Singapore,” she said. “But I quickly realized how ignorant the senator’s questions were.”Choo said the Cotton’s questions were tinged with racism and it was “narrow-minded” to assume that someone who’s ethnically Chinese would be affiliated with China.Another Singaporean, Fian Fazlie, said he was “completely baffled yet amused” at the senator’s questioning.“He’s just being ignorant and he’s still justifying (his words) in his latest Instagram post,” Fazlie, who works in the public transport sector, said about Cotton.Cotton posted a clip of himself giving an interview on Fox News to Instagram, stating in the caption that Chew had “a lot of explaining to do.”“Of course, you can be affiliated with or associated with the Chinese Communist Party anywhere in the world,” Cotton said on Fox News, adding that the Biden administration has many cases against US citizens suspected of collaborating or working with the Chinese Communist Party.“Singapore unfortunately is one of the places in the world that has the highest degree of infiltration and influence by the Chinese Communist Party,” said Cotton.It’s unclear what Cotton’s claims about Singapore were based on.The 41-year-old Chew is a native of Singapore, where he lives with his wife Vivian Kao and their three children. Prior to joining TikTok, Chew worked for five years at Xiaomi, a Chinese smartphone company. Before that, he was a partner at the venture capital firm DST Global and earlier worked at Goldman Sachs.
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