Sen. Hawley: China 'Incredibly Aggressive,' Ban TikTok

It continues to be a big week for Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., as he has excoriated DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and introduced two bills taking on Big Pharma. Now, he's furthering his work at taking on Chinese espionage.

Hawley has been one of Congress' most vocal supporters for a U.S. TikTok ban, but the Biden administration busts tied to the alleged Chinese "secret police stations" this week have confirmed his concerns about Chinese espionage in America.

"The Chinese government has been incredibly aggressive," Hawley warned, Newsweek reported. "They've got secret police stations in our cities. They're trying to use our social media, and it's all for surveillance."

Hawley had been rejected late last month in the Senate for considering his TikTok ban legislation.

"We should act decisively to ban TikTok directly," Hawley told the Senate. "We shouldn't give new open-ended authority to federal bureaucrats, we should target this threat specifically. That's what this bill does that we have before us today and it goes right at the problem. It bans TikTok in this country, it protects the American people, and it sends the message to Communist China that you cannot buy us."

Hawley's No TikTok on United States Devices Act was introduced in January, after his No TikTok on Government Devices Act was signed into law last year.

The new bill seeking the U.S. ban includes:

• Prohibit transactions with TikTok parent company ByteDance with stiff penalties for those evading sanctions.
• Require a Director of National Intelligence report within 120 days on national security threats, including:
  • Chinese government forced technology transfer.
  • Chinese use of data for "intelligence or military purposes, including surveillance, microtargeting, deepfakes, or blackmail."
  • Chinese government meddling campaigns "to monitor or manipulate Americans using data accessed via TikTok."

• Sen. Hawley Goes After Big Pharma
• Sen. Paul: Banning TikTok Would Doom GOP