American empire strikes back at China via economic warfare
- Bill will not only ban TikTok, but also may set precedent by not having to prove threat in targeting entity associated with ‘a foreign adversary’
The idea that TikTok poses a national security threat is laughable, as if accessing mass data about teenagers in the United States filming themselves doing silly things would offer Beijing a strategic advantage.
It may be argued that TikTok is the ultimate addictive diversion for young Americans and therefore bad for mental health and personal growth.
I would agree with that but then, any number of American social media platforms are already doing exactly that. And, increasingly enhanced by artificial intelligence, they are becoming even more engaging and addictive for users.
The move to ban TikTok unless its Chinese parent ByteDance divests it is not an isolated attack, but part of an evolving full-spectrum economic war against China.
The popular social media app is just the latest high-profile victim in an increasingly open economic war in lieu of an actual war, as it would be too dangerous to engage China militarily for now. But, as with a normal war, perhaps more so with an economic one, Washington is drafting allies, even some neutral countries, to join. It’s not just safety in numbers, even though that does help create the appearance of legitimacy, such as the US illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.
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China’s entrenched global trade and commerce extend too far and wide for the United States alone to counter and undercut without third-country help. Whether it will succeed in undermining China’s economy, it’s bound to inflict tremendous damage on the world economy, and most likely, its own.
At his latest press conference, Foreign Minister Wang Yi rhetorically asked four questions about the US. I paraphrase: If the US always says one thing and does another, does it only care about defeating the enemy rather than its credibility as a major power?
If the US gets anxious whenever “China” comes up, is it losing confidence and only now follows the logic of “If you are strong, I will be weak,” so I must take action?
If the US only allows itself to maintain prosperity and does not allow others to prosper, does it still uphold international justice and “the rules-based international order”?
If the US insists on monopolising high-end value chains, how far is it willing to force China to go down while claiming “fair competition”?
Wang is obviously not asking but making a point.
When it became clear that Huawei and some of its Chinese telecoms peers were ready to become major players in the global 5G market, the US successfully destroyed their international business, not only by strong-arming allies from using their services, but making Canada detain it’s No 2 Meng Wanzhou, thus creating the worst diplomatic spat between Beijing and Ottawa.
Once Chinese solar panels started to dominate major international markets, the administration of President Joe Biden went to war against the industry. Its latest hostile move, including roping in the European Union, aims at China’s electric vehicles and batteries.
It has gone to the absurd extent of claiming that the Chinese cars pose – you guessed it – a national security threat, according to US commerce chief Gina Raimondo.
Fine in Italy, security review in Canada add to TikTok’s woes
Now that those cars have made significant inroads into Europe, Brussels may find it difficult to reverse the trend to prove its loyalty to Washington.
But the real open economic war is over microchips. Act 1 included forcing allies such as the Netherlands, Japan and South Korea to restrict the sales of advanced chips. Raimondo now threatens Act 2 after she was upstaged during a visit to Beijing when Huawei released its latest smartphone that contained US-restricted chip technology.
The next stage of the US economic war is likely that anything Chinese can become a target.
