No TikTok for U.S. government phones

Here’s what else you need to know about China today:

The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a bill to ban TikTok from government devices. Federal employees will be prohibited from downloading or using the popular social media app on work phones and computers over concerns that Beijing could obtain access to data. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.

Beijing has hit back at British foreign secretary James Cleverly for “distorting facts,” per a statement released yesterday by the Chinese embassy in London, following his comments about the October clash on the grounds of the Chinese consulate in Manchester.

• Cleverly said “The violence at China’s consulate in Manchester was unacceptable,” and called it “disgraceful incident.”
• The Chinese statement said Cleverly gave an inaccurate description of the “violent disruptive incident,” while the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that “strong and forceful counter-measures” will be taken for failing to protect consulate staff.
• Beijing yesterday removed six of its officials from Britain, including consul-general Zhèng Xīyuán 郑曦原, a day before their diplomatic immunity expired, which would have allowed U.K. officials to question them.

China’s COVID-zero protests were “exploited by foreign forces,” Beijing’s ambassador to France, Lú Shāyě 卢沙野, said last week, although he admitted that people initially protested to “express their dissatisfaction” with poor management by local governments.

• Last week on The China Project: The scary ‘foreign forces’ behind China’s COVID lockdown protests?

Abbott pulls out of China’s milk powder market: U.S. medical devices and nutrition company Abbott announced yesterday that it is phasing out its infant nutritional products business in China and focusing on nutritional products for adults. Abbott opened a milk powder plant in China in 2014, but its market share has decreased since then with the rise of domestic milk powder brands. See today’s Business briefs from the Chinese media, with more links and info on:

• Another plan to stimulate consumer demand.
• Retail sales are still going south.
• The rural tap water penetration rate has reached 87%.

Want more business and technology news from The China Project in your inbox? Click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter that goes out at the end of every business day in China (coffee time in New York).