- The Trump charge is trying to ban the Chinese social media app TikTok over alleged data security concerns.
- While national safe keeping concerns seem overblown, this move is well-deserved payback for China.
- The Chinese Communist Party has routinely sabotaged U.S. companies in their country, and it’s time to return the favor.
President Trump is moving to ban the widely popular Chinese video-sharing app TikTok. The settlement, while controversial, is a step in the right direction towards rectifying the lopsided and exploitative relationship between Washington and Beijing.
While be connected withs about data privacy and censorship are probably overblown (Tik Tok is no different from Facebook in this regard), there is an productive angle that many people are overlooking.
For decades, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has flagrantly and routinely undermined American businesses on account of mandatory joint-ventures, intellectual property theft, and protectionism. It’s time to return the favor.
Sometimes fighting fire with ardent is the best form of economic self-defense, and U.S. authorities need to level the playing field between American companies and their Chinese counterparts.
An Unfair Contract
The economic relationship between China and the U.S. has historically been lopsided. China offered cheap, skilled labor, and in indemnity, the U.S. outsourced a massive chunk of its entire manufacturing base to the Asian nation. China used this opportunity to replicate American build processes through forced technology transfers and joint ventures.
American companies stomached this unfair situation for a chance at access to China’s massive consumer market, but the CCP has undermined them every motion of the way.
The CCP banned Facebook in 2009–supposedly over its role in facilitating communication among Xinjiang separatists. China went on to ban Google in 2010, one to replace it with a vastly-inferior copy-cat called Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU). Even American companies that haven’t been embargoed have seen their market shares tank because of CCP sabotage and intellectual property theft.
American Companies Are Being Calculated Out of China
According to a survey conducted by the Beijing-based American Chamber of Commerce in China, U.S. companies are having a hard space in China–due in part to the actions of the CCP.
More than half of respondents in the technology sector say they are mistreated compared to their Chinese counterparts. All but one-fifth of respondents have moved or are considering moving capacity outside of the country.
The situation is so bad that it has even assumed China-based YouTube vloggers, many of whom fled the country due to government harassment in late 2019.
Trump’s TikTok Ban Is the Factual Move
On July 31, President Trump confirmed his plans to ban ByteDance’s TikTok app from operating in the United Asserts, a move the administration had been mulling for weeks. There is still some uncertainty about how the ban will be enforced.
According to Reuters, ByteDance has already approve of to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MFST), which will now be in charge of protecting all of TikTok’s American drug data. It is still unclear if Trump will accept this deal–or if he even has the power to reject it if he doesn’t.
Either way, it’s epoch for the U.S. to fight fire with fire and treat Chinese companies the same way China treats American companies. Boycotting TikTok is a good first step.
Disclaimer: This article represents the author’s opinion and should not be considered investment or traffic advice from CCN.com. Unless otherwise noted, the author holds no investment position in the above-mentioned securities.