China urges the United States to cease its unreasonable suppression of foreign enterprises, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Friday, in commenting on the attendance of the CEO of social media platform TikTok at a U.S. Housing hearing earlier Thursday. 

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appeared before Congress Thursday morning to face questions that centered around what the U.S. government calls "concerns that the Chinese government could leverage the app's data to surveil American citizens or otherwise undermine U.S. national interests."

Speaking at a press conference in Beijing in response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning lashed out at the U.S. move to use so-called "national security concerns" as a pretext to suppress foreign companies like Chinese-owned short-form video app TikTok. 

Mao stated China's position on the protection of data privacy and security and pushed back against the U.S. suppression of foreign enterprises based purely on the "presumption of guilt." 

"What I would like to stress hereby is that the Chinese government attaches great importance to and protects data privacy and security in accordance with law. It has never and will not ask companies or individuals to collect or provide data information and intelligence located in foreign countries for the Chinese government in a way that violates local laws," Mao said. 

"So far, the U.S. government has not provided any evidence that TikTok poses a threat to U.S. national security, but it has repeatedly made the presumption of guilt against and unreasonably suppressed the relevant companies. We have also taken note that some members of the U.S. Congress call the attempt to ban TikTok constitutes xenophobic political persecution. The U.S. side should earnestly respect the market economy and the principle of fair competition, cease unreasonable suppression of foreign companies, and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for foreign companies to invest and operate in the U.S," she said.