With the House of Representatives returned to the hands of the Republicans, almost two dozen GOP governors have imposed the long overdue ban on TikTok over the past five weeks, ranging from restricting government employees’ access to the application to removing it altogether from government internet networks. While the majority of the left-wing Democrats are still living in their illusory vision of the threat posed by Communist China, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly (Democrat) and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (Democrat) are following the Republicans and joining the wave of the badly needed TikTok ban.
TikTok, the popular short video application owned and developed by ByteDance, is back at the center of controversy since the contemplated ban under the Trump Administration. ByteDance is a Chinese telecommunication company that is ostensibly privately owned. However, under the Chinese National Security Law, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is legally entitled to access any and all data processed and stored at Chinese companies, which certainly includes ByteDance. In addition to the CCP’s ability to access this data at any time, nearly all private companies in Communist China are under the substantial influence, if not direct control, of the CCP, with an increasing number of Party Committees being established within private entities. Therefore, the myth that TikTok can operate independently from the CCP is nothing more than an appeasing illusion.
Furthermore, had data security been the sole concern arising from the use of TikTok, the TikTok ban might be less pressing and urgent. However, there are growing concerns regarding the CCP’s ongoing efforts to use TikTok as a propaganda platform to disseminate misinformation and disinformation, and actively censor content that Beijing deems inappropriate. For example, in 2019, TikTok temporarily suspended a US account after the account owner posted a video that drew attention to the Xinjiang concentration camps. Moreover, former US employees of ByteDance also reported to The Washington Post that they had received instructions to limit content that was deemed subversive or controversial by the Beijing-based team. The real danger lurking under the surface, however, is Beijing’s desire to manifestly distort the definition of free speech and free press by blurring the line between legitimate East-West cultural differences, and its insidious political agenda; and the target of the CCP is obviously far beyond the Chinese border. Using social media platforms like TikTok to distort the notion of freedom of expression and freedom of the press is tantamount to a contagious virus capable of causing community transmission in today’s world. But perhaps what is more unfortunate is the naive appeasement by Democrats who create a toxic environment within which the virus flourishes. The White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said that she wants to “be very careful” discussing Senate-passed legislation banning TikTok from government devices. The Biden Administration’s ambiguous attitude and never-ending appeasement toward Communist China further jeopardize US national security and interests.
The misfortune that the Democrats brought to US national security is, fortunately, coming to an end with the establishment of the House Select Committee on China. Within the first five days of the GOP-led House, a bipartisan committee was successfully created to comprehensively counter the incremental threat coming from Communist China on a variety of grounds. As Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy pointed out, “there is bipartisan consensus that the era of trusting Communist China is over”— a unified voice of the United States is needed more than ever. However, the effectiveness of the newly created House Select Committee remains to be tested, as a significant number of Democrats are still under the illusion of so-called climate change cooperation with Communist China at the expense of long-term national security and strategic interests. As Republican Senator Tom Cotton tweeted after the G-20 summit in November 2022, “Joe Biden has again failed to address or even acknowledge China’s cold war against the United States. His naive return to a policy of appeasement will hurt the United States, endanger Taiwan, and further embolden Xi Jinping.” The Democrats’ return to the policy of appeasement is not merely detrimental to US national security, but will further endanger the peace hard-earned since the end of the Cold War.
