Guancha: The United States threatened to shut down TikTok and demanded that the company sell its U.S. business within 45 days. Two executive orders were signed to crack down on TikTok and the parent company of WeChat. Senior U.S. officials have also taken sanctioning measures against Huawei and other Chinese companies as well as Chinese APPs. What do you think is the purpose of the United States?
Le Yucheng: Your question reminds me of a cartoon I saw on social media: At the entrance to a road erects a U.S. signpost that reads "free market". Along the road, a cute piglet, representing TikTok, is strolling and eating. What awaits it at the end of the road, however, is Uncle Sam with a knife in hand, ready to slaughter it after it becomes fattening. That is a vivid image of the situation of Chinese businesses in the United States today.
The TikTok-bashing by the United States has caused quite a stir in recent days. Without producing any solid evidence, the U.S. administration is taking actions against TikTok based on the presumption of guilt, and threatening to force a sellout within 45 days or simply ban it. To save the company, TikTok has been communicating with the U.S. for nearly a year. It has even made such big compromises as instituting an all-American management team, storing all U.S. user data in the United States and Singapore, making its review policy and algorithm source code public, hiring 1,500 Americans, and promising to create another 10,000 jobs. The company has met almost all U.S. demands, but still cannot be spared. Even if it ends up being acquired, a substantial portion of the money must be paid to the U.S. government. What kind of "art of the deal" is this? This is sheer gangster logic and daylight robbery.
What sin has TikTok committed? It is simply a platform for the American public to showcase their talent and spread joy. It has nothing to do with national security. But wrongdoings can always be conveniently fabricated. The United States wants to strangle TikTok, no matter what painful compromises the company makes. The real and the only reason is that it is a Chinese company. As some Chinese Internet users commented, these U.S. moves are "utterly disgraceful". To suppress a private company from China, the whole of the U.S. government, from President to the powerful agencies, is ganging up, like tigers preying on a little rabbit. The whole world is watching with contempt the looting and robbery by the United States.
This also reminds me of what Huawei has been through. With similarly fabricated allegations, the United States is hunting down Huawei around the world. It even went after Ms. Meng Wanzhou, who has been put under house arrest in Canada for more than 600 days. Such actions have sent chills down the spines of Chinese businesses, whose executives no longer dare to travel to the United States. People cannot help asking: Where is the United States that styles itself as the example of free market, competitive neutrality and the rule of law? Some international media describe the United States as being "technophobic" and pursuing a "digital gunboat policy", but what it actually fears is other countries getting ahead of it in high-tech. Preaching a "clean network" while having stains all over itself, the United States is turning the "Internet" into a "U.S.-net" that only serves its own interests.
