The point is this.
In the past, the Americans would never be afraid or raising alarm bells about something like TikTok.
Now they are. Something has fundamentally changed.
This behavior is not new, though. As I mentioned in another comment, uring the 70's and 80's they did the same thing with japanese stuff fearing Japan would over take them.
They can't handle not being top dog which also makes them dangerous because this time around, they can't torpedo the Chinese economy like they did with Japan so I can easily see them nuking the world if they can't be the hegemon anymore.
If they can't have it, no one else will.