China’s foreign ministry on Friday (March 15) criticised a bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives for Chinese-based ByteDance to divest short video app TikTok within six months or face a ban.br br "It is truly ironic that the U.S. itself, a country that prides itself on freedom of speech and claims to be a free market economy, uses state power to suppress a specific company," said foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin at a regular briefing.