Yes, anyone who thought otherwise was naive... its all about keeping China down, not enough to limit Chinese apps from being used in US, but the goal is to completely kill off all successful Chinese firms/products, the US simply won't accept even the existence of TikTok even outside its borders... like Tom Cotton likes to say "give no quarter" etc...
Google and other US companies have already become bona fide sanctions arms of the US government... This is also a strategic part of the US information warfare against China (and against the world)
I personally dont use TikTok, but make no mistake, they are already going after WeChat with full force as well....
In light of this, and assuming Biden will win in November, do you think it is a good idea to consider the possibility of "opening" the Great firewall?
The idea is that now the situation is very dire with Trump and co utilizing "nuclear option" like candy and set precedence to it. What prevents future administration to put everything on the list on a whim? I am sure that even local indigenous players are also worried.
My reasons are these
1. The TikTok debate and events like
already showed that "data sovereignty" is also acceptable to the western society. We can set reciprocal rules that each tech players should store data exclusively on respective borders.
2. It will offer Biden (or whoever his successor will be) a strong key campaign and achievement for the next election (As Nixon open China, so does Biden open the firewall!). I do not really, really want to see another Republican in the administration at least for a decade, esp the Trumpian one (Rubio, Hawley, Cotton).
These folks might be crazy and/or paranoid, but for sure they hold a massive amount of power.
3. I also believe that as the western apps go into China, so does the local giant go global. We might see some "peer alliances", for example, Uber and Meituan vs Didi and Expedia.
4. Possibility to counter/explain various allegations strongly. We have seen various allegations during COVID-19, some are absurds e.g. 20 million subscribers lost === 20 million lives lost. If more Chinese joined the "global forum" it will be easier to dispel. FYI, the same pattern I also found regarding Ladakh contentions, I have never seen on MSM/forums Chinese viewpoints of the contention only Indian one.
Side point, if the entity list really happens, arent Bytedance glad that China have their own ecosystem?
