TikTok Hearing Shows That US-China Tech Relations Deteriorating

By Chris Oates

At a Congressional hearing last month, the CEO of TikTok defended his company against a possible ban or forced sale. Such a ban - which is not certain to happen - would likely trigger retaliatory measures from China against US companies doing business there. These could be any number of steps that make it harder for US firms from accessing China’s market, as a show that perceived US targeting of China’s first truly global consumer software giant will not come without costs.

During the hearing, Members of Congress levied a number of critiques against the app, but the central issue is its ownership. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, which is based in China, and lawmakers continually returned to the question of whether Chinese government officials could access data on American users, or whether the app’s algorithmic feed could be abused for political or ideological purposes.

Whether or not the allegations or TikTok’s denials are true, it has become taken for granted within bipartisan circles in Washington that the app is a national security threat. Even Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Chinese control of the app should be “ended one way or another.”

The Biden Administration is now in a difficult position. It does not want to allow TikTok to operate unfettered, or it will be portrayed as being weak on a threat to the country. It does not want to ban the app and risk backlash from its users and further deteriorating relations with China. While it hopes for a third option in the way of a sale to a US firm, China has vowed not to approve that and ByteDance is unlikely to acquiesce.

The outcome of TikTok is difficult to predict now. Yet the outcome of future TikToks appear clear. It appears highly unlikely that another mass consumer app designed and headquartered in China that collects data will be permitted in the United States. This also means that more US companies are likely to be restricted to operate in China, with new obstacles created in retaliation to any US move. While there will not be a complete decoupling between the two economies, the fact that Members of Congress would risk alienating many of their own constituents shows that the current bilateral landscape is likely to only get worse.