Twitter’s controversial China chief is all on her own

Twitter cut 9 per cent of its global workforce to keep costs down

In the midst of Twitter’s layoff of 9 per cent of its staff – about 350 people – there’s also turmoil over in Asia.

Twitter is shifting a lot of roles from Hong Kong to Singapore, the company confirmed to Tech in Asia this evening. “While we are transitioning our work, such as advertizer sales support and media partnerships, from Hong Kong to our Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore, our MD of Greater China, Kathy Chen, will still be based here,” said a Twitter spokesperson.

“We are not shutting down our HK office,” the spokesperson emphasized.



Twitter was responding to an article about layoffs that appeared this afternoon in the Hong Kong Free Press, which cited unnamed sources.

That leaves Kathy (pictured) – the controversial China chief who hit the headlines earlier this year for, as The Guardian describes, her background as an engineer for the Chinese military in the late 1980s and 90s – the sole person at the Hong Kong office.

Kathy was also involved with a firm from 1999 to 2005 with apparent links to China’s ministry of public security that, according to Chen’s own description in a 2004 interview, made software used to filter “information of political sensitivity and harmful information.” That led to outcries after Kathy’s appointment in April from rights activists and free speech advocates.

She has also worked at Cisco and Microsoft.

The Hong Kong office, opened early last year, covers mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Twitter has been blocked in the mainland since 2009, but the company is still active in the country in pursuit of Chinese companies who want to advertize globally on Twitter. Major clients include Huawei and Xinhua.



The “vast majority” of the ad revenue generated by the Hong Kong office is derived from mainland Chinese brands, Twitter’s managing director of online sales for APAC, Aliza Knox, told me last year.

It’s unclear if Twitter staffers in Hong Kong are losing their jobs or being relocated to Singapore.

“Greater China is an important part of our commitment and network across Asia Pacific which is one of our largest and fastest-growing regions in the world,” added the Twitter spokesperson this evening.

Twitter earlier today said it will soon shut down spin-off app Vine.

This article originally appeared on Tech in Asia.