The Cold War over TikTok Videos

Published in Der Standard
(Austria) on 24 March 2023
by Eric Frey [link to original]
Translated from German by Mallory MatsumotoUS policy’s fight against the popular platform is an absurd response to the challenge from China. An intense war may be raging in Ukraine, but China remains the greatest enemy in Washington. And its most dangerous weapon is 30-second-long dance videos. At least, this is the impression given by Congressional representatives from both parties during an hours-long hearing of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who was interrogated like a war criminal on Thursday. Loyalty to Beijing, data theft, spying, destruction of American youth—the reserved manager from Singapore was accused of everything. That it was the Chinese government, rather than the private parent company ByteDance, who ruled out the sale of TikTok hours before the hearing only increased mistrust surrounding ByteDance’s independence. Whether Beijing could in fact access strategically valuable information through the popular video platform is hardly relevant here anymore. TikTok has become a symbol of the new Cold War between the U.S. and China. But the representation of this fight has just as much substance of a typical TikTok video. China is not as powerful as some claim, nor is there any apparent masterplan for global supremacy. The authoritarian President Xi Jinping is a problem primarily for his people who are stripped of increasingly more freedoms, including use of Western internet services. The demonization of TikTok is the most absurd answer to the challenge from China.. Edited by Helaine Schweitzer.
Posted on March 27, 2023.