TikTok is just the straw that broke the camel's back.<p>The US was never going to perpetually entertain a lop side trade relationship with a wealthy country that had the kind of human rights and foreign policy situation the west traditionally only ignores if you're poor.<p>It just so happens that the current administration is not run by political professionals so it comes across like a toddler throwing a tantrum and obviously many people take significant issue with the specific policies presented (i.e. this whole TikTok debacle).<p>Make no mistake, regardless of who's in the oval office next February we are in for cooler trade relations with China. This has been a long time coming and there's bipartisan support. The left is no fan of off-shoring industry to places with more lax worker and environmental protections. The right is no fan of doing business with a bunch of reds who hate religious freedom. Neither side is a fan of either of those things coming at the expense of working class Americans.
censorship and spying by the CCP is an important issue, but i don't understand why anyone should let chinese apps operate in their market when china doesn't reciprocate.<p>the trade issue alone is enough for me to support banning it the rest is just noise.
As a person outside US I think the truth is more simpler,
the China economic war is the topic Trump uses to win the election, is the exact thing with the immigrants and the wall.<p>TikTok is just the next step, I am expecting that all the bad things and Trump failures(no wall, COVID) will be blamed on China and after Trump will make China pay it will rain with money.
In my opinion, Trump is doing this so that on September 16th (or whatever the date is now) he can proclaim how good of a business man he is, how he is such a deal maker and can bring companies to the USA. He won on that moniker the first time, he realizes he isn't going to win on the "best economy ever".
It is worth noting the article author may be motivated by prejudice: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Sarah_Jeong#Actual_language_from_her_tweets" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Sarah_Jeong#Actual_langua...</a>
I watched <i>Enchanted</i> several years ago with a child who was disappointed that it didn't follow the clear-cut good triumphs over evil happily-ever-after fairy tale tropes.<p>I bet that no-longer-a-child would rebel if they, at the age they are now, were forced to consume fairy tale fare instead of more plausible plots.<p>(Bonus clip: Cinderella meets a handyman prince <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQYNUwYHV1c" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQYNUwYHV1c</a><p>What do you think of that invention, Elon Musk?)
> The executive order is instead better understood as an attempt to bully companies into regulating speech according to the government’s tastes.<p>Hmm. But what if the Chinese use Tik Tok or other social media companies to spread anti-American or pro-Chinese dystopia propaganda? We've seen how susceptible people are to disinformation, so should we trust an opponent (let's not pretend China isn't since we already tried to work with them) with social media applications in the US or west at large?<p>That's aside from, well, if you're going to ban and restrict US companies from spreading free speech then I just don't see why we should let China use our strength against us. Idk why people think that anybody (Americans included) will just always "choose Democracy" or w/e - we're clearly susceptible to mind infections and herd mentality toward really dumb ideas. China can use free speech in the US against us. We do need to protect against that.<p>At a minimum we need to make Chinese companies store their data about Americans within the US and it needs to be routinely audited.