President-elect Donald Trump has given the Chinese intelligence services a big Christmas present by petitioning the Supreme Court to delay the enforced sale or suspension of TikTok. TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, which is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, the United States’s preeminent adversary.
Trump’s petition asserts that he “opposes banning TikTok in the United States at this juncture, and seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.” Unless the Supreme Court accepts Trump’s request, TikTok must cease operation or be sold to a U.S. owner by Jan. 19, 2025, the day before Trump reassumes the presidency.
Trump’s petition says he is uniquely placed to negotiate an arrangement that would balance national security with TikTok’s continued operation under ByteDance. This is fanciful stuff. ByteDance will be unwilling to address U.S. national security concerns under Trump for exactly the same reason that it is so insistent it should not be forced to sell TikTok in the first place. Namely, that ByteDance is a servant not of its own business success but of the Chinese Communist Party’s political agenda.
As with the only paper-thin claims of China’s Huawei 5G provider that it does not serve Chinese espionage interests, TikTok’s screeches of innocence belie the Chinese government’s role as the source of its algorithms and the destination for TikTok data flows. This is not in question. Just consider how popular TikTok is with its 150 million American users. Ask then why so many members of Congress nevertheless voted to ban the app and risk voter ire. It’s because they were told in their classified briefings what you just read.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his comrades know full well that TikTok is a weapon of such power, causing Sun Tzu to spasm excitedly in his 2,500-year-old grave. That legendary Chinese military scholar’s central thesis still undergirds Chinese Communist strategy today. Namely, his argument that deception and, wherever possible, the avoidance of direct confrontation must be held sacrosanct. As Sun put it, “All warfare is based on deception.” He further observed that “To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting … the skillful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.”
This brings us back to TikTok. The app allows unprecedented hostile manipulation of Americans via the exploited analysis of their habits and interests. Artificial intelligence will only increase China’s manipulative targeting and influence. The app will help China to identify Americans who work in sensitive government, military, or technology professions to spy for Beijing. They can then either be recruited, blackmailed, or eliminated in the event of war. However, TikTok also allows China to shape public opinion in ways favorable to Beijing and countermanding to U.S. security interests. Remember, TikTok is only one part of China’s gigantic spying apparatus.
China already operates legions of spies dedicated to stealing American secrets in cyberspace and engaging in malfeasant activity on American soil. Even then, the threat ranges broader. China recently gained enduring covert access to vast elements of the U.S. cellphone network system, allowing it to gather data on the locations and activities of millions of Americans and the actual phone and text conversations of hundreds, if not thousands, of high-profile individuals. The U.S. government remains unable to confirm that Chinese spies have been successfully extricated from these networks.
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Trump may claim grand power to be able to balance U.S. security alongside TikTok’s current ownership. However, this is a fiction only idiots could consume. The app asks its users to sacrifice their privacy and their nation’s security in return for repeating mirages of short-lived happiness. However, those who control this app are ultimately determined to see those Americans subordinated under the Chinese Communist Party’s global hegemony.
The soon-to-be commander in chief should remember that his first obligation isn’t about reaching for what is here a nonexistent art of the deal. Instead, it is to keep the country safe.