Twitter cofounder and CEO Jack Dorsey announced on Friday that Kathy Chen has been appointed as managing director of Twitter’s operations in Greater China. “Given that USA tech firms have in the past kowtowed to China, and given the military background of Kathy Chen, it’s only reasonable for the Chinese users of Twitter to be anxious about the future”, He Qinglian, a prominent overseas-based Chinese political activist, wrote on her blog. Chen, who will mainly work to attract advertising contracts from Chinese companies through the company’s Hong Kong office, has come under fire for her initial tweets reaching out to Chinese official media, and for her background working with the Chinese government and security apparatus. She’s also worked with a software company with close ties to China’s Ministry of Public Security, and is clearly no stranger to the tight rope she’ll have to walk to remain in the state government’s good graces. Facebook is courting Chinese advertisers and Google is pursuing developers.
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However, some mainland Chinese Twitter users are doubting her intentions, given Chen’s previous positions.
Chen, who according to her Twitter profile appears to be based in Hong Kong, said in a tweet that she was looking to “create more value for Chinese enterprises, creators, partners and developers”.
She was then hired by Computer Associates, a U.S. company, to lead its joint venture in China.
With just 18 tweets to her name, Kathy Chen has little experience with the platform she’s now running in mainland China, Macau, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Between roles, she worked at Cisco.
Despite being banned by the government in mainland China, the country is still an important growth market for Twitter.
Twitter, which has been facing a slowdown in user growth, has been seeking to add products and expand outside the United States.
Twitter Vice President for Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Emerging Markets, Shailesh Rao, highlighted during an interview with the South China Morning Post that the number of Chinese advertisers on Twitter had increased by three times since past year.
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Twitter’s deeper foray into China is upsetting the social network’s small but dedicated group of Chinese users-who say the company’s newest hire is a troubling sign that Twitter could be introducing Beijing-style censorship to the world, not free speech to China.
