Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stressed on Monday that tech companies operating in China must comply with relevant domestic legislation and "provide safe and reliable products and services," according to the Global Times. Yesterday, billionaire Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, said the situation in which China's app TikTok is allowed access to the market in the United States while X is banned in China is "unbalanced." He came out against a ban on TikTok in the US but said that "something needs to change" in China's attitude to foreign social media.
Mao said China welcomes foreign firms but that the Chinese government "manages the internet in accordance with the law." China banned Twitter and other foreign social media platforms in 2009, long before Musk acquired the company and changed its name to X in 2022.
