China’s Commerce Ministry spokesperson Shu Jueting said authorities would have to approve ByteDance’s divestiture of the short-video app, and would “firmly oppose” the Biden administration’s reported demand that TikTok’s Chinese owners sell their stakes. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew also testified before the U.S. House commerce committee Thursday. (The Wall Street Journal, The Logic)

Talking point: In Washington, Chew had planned to talk up measures that the firm says will keep U.S. user data in the country, and to emphasize that Beijing has never had access to it. But the Chinese ministry’s statement about a sale featured heavily in the early hours of the hearing, with lawmakers using it to argue that China’s government has control over TikTok. Committee members also questioned Chew on how the app addresses the mental-health effects of its content on teen users; Meta-owned Instagram has faced similar scrutiny. Chew noted that TikTok isn’t the only social platform that’s the subject of those concerns and other privacy-related ones. “You remind me a lot of Mark Zuckerberg,” California Democrat Tony Cárdenas said, calling “a lot” of Chew’s answers “a bit nebulous.”