My Take | 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.
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.