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"I am Shou Chew, and I am from Singapore. That's where I was born, as were my parents."
This was how Shou Chew, or Chew Shou Zi, introduced himself to members of the United States Congress House Energy and Commerce committee when he arrived to give testimony and answer questions on Mar. 23.
Did his nationality have anything to do with his appointment to the role, and, by extension, his appearance before Congress?
Some might say so, because of Singapore's neutrality.
Surely the reasons TikTok chose a Singaporean are similar to why the company chose to base itself in Singapore.
A 2020 Business Times article stated that "Southeast Asia is rapidly evolving into a critical location for China's largest tech corporations", especially "in the face of growing hostility from the United States".
Others, including former Singaporean diplomats Mothership spoke to, felt that this had nothing to do with Singapore.
But first, here's what we know about Chew's career and his current appointment.
Shou Time
Chew was Hwa Chong Institution student, an officer during his national service, and a graduate of the University College of London, with an MBA from Harvard.
@mothershipsg 2LT Chew Shou Zi 🫡 #sgnews #tiktoksg ♬ Spirits - The Strumbellas
He represents one version of the modern ideal lifepath of a high achieving Singaporean.
He joined Goldman Sachs, and then the DST investment fund, which invested in Bytedance, the mainland Chinese company responsible for video sharing app Douyin, the global version of which is, of course, TikTok.
Chew would then join Bytedance as the chief financial officer, before taking over as chief executive officer of TikTok, after having first held the role of CFO at Huawei and was Xiaomi's president of international business.
So, before going any further, it should probably be made clear: Chew's resume is entirely in line with someone who might end up as CEO of a large tech company.
His credentials and experience do match up with his current role, and points to him earning the role by merit.
Given that TikTok would still be able to attract similarly credentialed individuals for the role, was there significance in his nationality?
There are some signs pointing to this.
Chew himself seemed to use his Singapore citizenship as a shield during the hearing, albeit in a limited, selective way.
First, such as when he was introducing himself.
Then, when defending against Dan Crenshaw's implications of TikTok being a tool of the Communist Party of China's supposed effort to undermine the United States, Chew exclaimed: "Congressman, First, I'm Singaporean."
Ultimately, there is a question of why he did this, and what benefit he thought it would bring him -- and what implication it has for a small, interconnected city-state in Southeast Asia.
In and out
Chew's predecessor in the role was an American and former Disney executive, Kevin Mayer.
At Disney, Mayer was responsible for shepherding its Disney+ streaming service into existence.
But Mayer would not last long at TikTok, quitting after three months, following speculation that Bytedance would be forced to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations due to concerns over the app’s risk to national security.
Mayer told CNBC that he had no interest in either being the head of a TikTok with no U.S. presence or as a small part of a larger company, such as if Microsoft had taken over it.
And so he stepped down in August 2020.
U.S.'s concern about TikTok has centered on the app’s collection of significant quantities of personal data, and whether China’s government would be able to access that data, as laid out by the Associated Press.
It is also worth noting that several other countries beyond the U.S. have expressed concern over TikTok or banned it entirely, notably India, the European Union, and the United Kingdom.
This stems from TikTok’s use of a powerful algorithmic tool, designed to monitor the watching habits of its users and serve content that some will call effective, while others call addictive.
Over the years, all social media platforms have come under fire for perceived misuse of algorithms, and being accused to pandering to its users worst sides in order to get them to endlessly “doomscroll”.
But in this aspect, Tiktok is not different from Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.
It’s just better at it. And from China.
And this is part of the reason why Mayer’s resignation turned out to be for naught: While the reasons why TikTok wasn’t sold in 2020 are still unclear, what is known is that China’s government implemented laws that would have prevented TikTok’s sale without its approval.
China has also recently said it “firmly opposes” the forced sale of TikTok, with The Wall Street Journal quoting China’s Commerce Ministry saying that a sale of divestiture of TikTok would require China’s government’s approval.
The Wall Street Journal also reported China's foreign ministry saying that it "has never asked and will never ask any company or individual to collect or provide data, information or intelligence located in other countries through means that are in violation of local laws".
So throughout TikTok’s controversial operations, there has been a consistent history of both the U.S. and China getting involved in the future of the company, either in the potential sale or spinning off of the company.
So when picking a CEO -- and where the said CEO and the company as a whole will be based -- neutrality, or the appearance of such, is a virtue.
Insulated fall guy
Singapore’s stated foreign policy over the past decade, as U.S.-China relations deteriorated at an alarming rate, has been to not choose between the two.
Singaporean leaders and diplomats have said in public that they have always been candid about wanting to work with both sides, and have been met with understanding and acceptance by their counterparts in the U.S. and China.
And it’s not just Singapore.
Not choosing between the two is the stated position of Asean as well, showing that the region as a whole wants its future to be the continued investment in and by China, partnered with the continued security and economic involvement of the U.S.
Does Chew’s career present any indication of what Singaporeans might experience, at the intersection of both global powers?
What does the CEO of a Chinese company, whose main cultural and economic relevance is its business in the U.S. (and to be clear, we’re only talking about TikTok, not Bytedance).
Opinion leaders in Singapore’s foreign affairs are unequivocal.
Former foreign minister George Yeo said succinctly:
“Although we are proud of Shou Zi’s role, this issue has nothing to do with Singapore.”
He added that as far as the U.S. congress hearing was concerned, Yeo characterised it as “talking” rather than a “hearing”.
He said:
“This issue is about how far Congress and the U.S. government are prepared to take anti-China actions and override the desire of millions of American TikTok users to continue using the app.”
Retired Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan echoed this sentiment, in that Chew’s role, both at TikTok and at the hearings, had little to do with Singapore.
He said:
“I don’t think that (Chew) doing what he was paid to do has any geopolitical consequences for Singapore because he works for ByteDance, not the Singapore government.”
But Bilahari also said that analysis should come from the correct premise, that Chew is an employee, not a principal.
Chew was likely hired "for the expressed reason that he is ethnic Chinese but not (a citizen of China)".
Chew was also employed "to be subjected to what he was subjected to in Congress", as Bilahari said what Chew had faced was "entirely predictable".
Chew served "as a layer of insulation for ByteDance", he said.
He added:
"So let’s not either idolise him or demonise him for doing what he was being paid to do — draw the fire and take the flak on behalf of ByteDance".
Bytedance and TikTok are certainly not linked to the Singapore government, and Chew has no professional links to Singapore's government.
He was not a civil servant.
A fence with a view
Instead, here's what he is: A non-American who is familiar with the U.S. both culturally and academically, and a non-Chinese citizen familiar with China through his professional experience.
He is a product of an environment that has long encouraged interactions with both sides of a global divide that has grown from a small crack to a gaping chasm in the past two decades.
Bytedance is a massive company that would have been able to pick the profile of its TikTok CEO almost at its whim.
As Chew said during the hearing, three out of five Bytedance board members are American.
TikTok's leadership is also mainly American, and if they had wanted another American CEO, they could have hired one.
Chew's American predecessor Mayer, as was noted previously, only left because of anticipated changes that did not come to pass, and not due to TikTok's present setup.
It is possible that TikTok picked someone with elements of both worlds.
Bilahari alludes to as much by referring to Chew as a "layer of insulation", saying that he was employed to draw fire and take flak on behalf of Bytedance.
In replying to Mothership, Bilahari referred to a private social media post, which speculated that Chew’s employment, and thus his appearance at congressional hearings, was strategically crafted to appeal to people.
His nationality, and what it represents, is a part of that, even if Chew was not actively portraying himself as such.
To announce yourself as a Singaporean based in Singapore is to embrace this.
This is not to negate Chew’s very impressive resume, which was likely far more decisive in his selection.
But we as Singaporeans should also be mindful that in a world of fine margins before vast chasms, we might take advantage of the opportunities the nation’s positioning has presented for us, but be wary what those opportunities might ultimately mean.
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Top image via C-Span/YouTube