About

Senator, I'm Singaporean refers to a catchphrase taken from a moment during the January 2024 U.S. Senate hearing on online child safety with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in which Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton continued to ask him if he was a Chinese citizen and associated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Chew repeatedly stated he was a citizen of Singapore, and, at one point, bluntly said, "Senator, I'm Singaporean." The moment was used in memes and edits to make fun of U.S. politicians and representatives for seemingly being ignorant about social media and TikTok amid the U.S. TikTok ban developments in January 2025.

Origin

On January 31st, 2024, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was questioned at a U.S. Senate hearing on online child safety. At one moment, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton questioned Chew on his citizenship. Sen. Cotton continually asked about China and if Chew was associated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Chew repeatedly answered that he was a Singaporean.^[1]

The clip was tweeted by NBC News on its official Twitter / X ^[2] account on January 31st, gaining over 34.9 million views and 68,000 likes in a year (shown below).

Sen. Tom Cotton: "Have you ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party?"

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew: "Senator, I'm Singaporean. No."

Cotton: "Have you ever been associated or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party?"

Chew: "No, senator. Again, I'm Singaporean." pic.twitter.com/1pZaQ64Wxz

— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 31, 2024

Spread

In the following days, the clip of Shou Zi Chew saying, "Senator, I'm Singaporean," was posted elsewhere, like to TikTok^[3] by CNN on February 2nd, 2024, receiving over 989,500 likes in 11 months.

The NBC News tweet of the moment received viral quote tweets as well. For instance, on January 31st, X^[4] user @sasponella wrote about Sen. Cotton seemingly being upset that Chew wasn't Chinese, gaining over 82,000 likes in a year (shown below).

You can tell the white guy is genuinely mad as fuck that the asian guy is not chinese. Hes asking any question possible to derive the slightest bit of chineseness just so he can use that against him because being chinese has been a de facto bad thing in this country for 200 years https://t.co/dfegUVcWjS

— (sab) 睿燄 • Their Totality (@sasponella) January 31, 2024

The clip resurfaced en masse a year later in January 2025 following developments in the U.S. TikTok ban that was set to occur on January 19th, 2025. For instance, on January 5th, TikToker^[5] @justhopeforcore posted a Hopecore parody using the clip, gaining over 846,900 likes in 16 days (shown below).

On January 18th, TikToker^[6] @chandlerleedude posted a skit about being Sen. Tom Cotton's kid, joking about a friend who's Singaporean that Cotton thinks is Chinese. The video received over 18,400 likes in three days (shown below).

On January 20th, 2025, TikToker^[7] @_donutmuncher_ shared an animation of the clip, gaining over 3,100 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References