<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Internal documents confirm that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has a close relationship with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The image at left shows ByteDance employees and CCP members posing with a Communist flag during an event held</span><span class="s1"> last summer at the company’s headquarters in Beijing. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">During the event, ByteDance employees explained in great detail to CCP members TikTok’s video operation mechanism and the app&#8217;s ability to collect and analyze massive amounts of user data.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Today, ByteDance&#8217;s Beijing office maintains a CCP committee with at least 138 members &#8211; several of whom work in management positions. A recent job post for “editors” clarifies that the company prioritizes Party members when hiring. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">“The extent of CCP membership among ByteDance management further demonstrates the company’s ties to the Chinese regime, fueling security concerns about TikTok,” reports <i>The Epoch Times,</i> an anti-CCP newspaper run by Chinese Americans. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">“The CCP members list reveals the extent of the Party’s relationship with ByteDance, and dovetails with the tech giant’s long-documented history of cooperating with authorities on censorship.”</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Committee members include Chief Editor Zhang Fuping, who oversees censorship-related tasks for ByteDance&#8217;s social media platforms. Speaking with reporters last year, Zhang said, &#8220;</span><span class="s1">The public opinion can be led in the right direction…full of positive energy, and promote the core values of socialism.&#8221;</span></p>
<p>Zhang&#8217;s comments are in line with Chinese laws that require companies to promote the CCP online and to block information that portrays the Party in a negative light.</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Another member of the CCP committee is Meng Haibo, director of ByteDance’s public affairs department. Meng oversees affairs related to government cooperation and leads big data analysis projects.</span></p>
<p><strong>ByteDance is also in cahoots with China&#8217;s police force. </strong></p>
<p>In 2019, the company signed a deal with China&#8217;s Ministry of Public Security that aims to use online media to &#8220;tell nice police stories,&#8221; &#8220;build a good image of our police,&#8221; and &#8220;foster close relations between police and the public,&#8221; said a Ministry spokesperson.</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">As part of the deal, ByteDance helps police departments set up social media accounts and promotes the content generated by those accounts. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Needless to say, ByteDance’s intrusion into the US via TikTok is more than concerning.</b></span></p>
<p>The level of CCP membership within ByteDance is typical for Chinese companies, and you just can&#8217;t treat or trust them &#8220;<span class="s1">the way you would interface with other companies in global commerce,&#8221; </span><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">says James Carafano, Vice President of The Heritage Foundation’s Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy.</span></p>
<p>This unsettling news about ByteDance comes days after <span class="s1">President Trump issued an executive order that bans US transactions with ByteDance unless the company’s US interests are purchased by a domestic company within 45 days. <em>Microsoft has confirmed that it is in talks with ByteDance to purchase TikTok&#8217;s US operations. </em></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Author’s Note: </b>China regularly uses technology to further its goals of limiting free speech and taking over the world. </span><span class="s1">Just as the CCP attempted to use Huawei and ZTE to gain control over 5G technology, it is using TikTok to gather information about Americans and control what they see. We cannot allow this insidious operation to continue.</span></p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s Note:</strong> Think about the ability to track your children, to gain insight into their lives and to eventually feed them propaganda that will influence our country in their favor. The employees of Tiktok have no choice. But Trump does, and he has decided to take action.</p>