The TikTok Hearing and Xiang Zhuang's Sword Dance as Viewed by Two CICIR Analysts

"If incidents like TikTok were to occur repeatedly, the [world’s] digital future would indeed be a worrying one. In this sense, the TikTok saga cannot be given enough strategic scrutiny and attention"

Dear Everyone,

Today’s edition of Sinification focuses on one of the many reactions in China to the US Congress’s recent hearing on the popular video-sharing app TikTok. The piece presented below is co-authored by two analysts from the influential China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) and offers a somewhat more moderate appraisal of TikTok’s recent scrutiny in the US than others (for a more hawkish and propagandistic commentary, see for example Tian Feilong’s recent opinion piece for Guancha.cn). Their article is entitled “Xiang Zhuang's Sword Dance: What is he after? — The Prismatic Effect of the TikTok Incident”, which refers to a famous plot by warlord Xiang Yu (项羽) to kill the future founder and first emperor of the Han dynasty Liu Bang (刘邦) in 206 BC. In TikTok’s case, the one performing this deceptive sword dance is, of course, the United States. The authors base most of their commentary on arguments made by Western analysts, another reminder perhaps of how much more closely the Chinese follow discussions in the West than we do theirs – yet also how much easier it is for them to do so. Beyond the language barrier, I am referring here to both the censorship and self-censorship that hinder public political discussions in China. Though less acute than what is often assumed, such constraints are nevertheless real and make the analysis of these debates all the more difficult.

SUMMARY

• US concerns that TikTok may pose a threat to its national security are, of course, dismissed with the company being compared to “an innocent man whose talent has aroused the envy of others”.

• The US’s crackdown on TikTok is said to be a case of “treating the symptoms but not the root cause” and the result of the politicisation of America’s tech and industrial policies.

• It is seen as a symbol of Washington’s quest for cyber “dominance and leadership” in the world and its desire to constrain China in this field.

• The TikTok affair is depicted as particularly worrying and as potentially auguring further TikTok-like crackdowns – a trend that would also exacerbate an already fragmented internet.

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First Author: Li Yan (李艳)

¹

Age: 46/47
Position: Executive director of the Institute of Sci-Tech and Cyber Security Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR). Li appears to have worked at CICIR since 2001.
Other known roles: Special adviser to the Secretary General of the High-level Advisory Committee of the World Internet Conference in China. Involved in US-China, UK-China and EU-China cyber track II dialogues.
Research focus: Cybersecurity and internet governance.
Education: BA and MA at Lanzhou University. PhD at an unspecified university.
Experience abroad: Unclear. Has travelled to the US, UK, Europe, Russia, Japan, India and other countries.

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Second Author: Zhou Ningnan (周宁南)
Position: Assistant Researcher at CICIR’s Institute of Sci-Tech and Cyber Security Studies.
Background: Unknown

XIANG ZHUANG'S SWORD DANCE: WHAT IS HE AFTER? — THE PRISMATIC EFFECT OF THE TIKTOK INCIDENT
Li Yan and Zhou Ningnan
(25 March 2023)

EXCERPTS

“It is widely believed that this [TikTok] affair, although seemingly targeted against TikTok, is in actual fact ‘unrelated’ to it [与其’无关’]. It is but the tip of the iceberg in the US government's many overpowering measures to crackdown on China in the digital sector. Thus, our attention should go beyond this event itself and focus on the various implications it brings to light.”

“[The crackdown on TikTok] is nothing other than a case of the innocent man whose talent has aroused the envy of others [无他，匹夫无罪，怀璧其罪罢了]. Washington’s new National Cybersecurity Strategy clearly states the need for the US to rebuild the digital ecosystem and cyberspace so that it can ensure America’s [global] dominance and leadership. And as we all know, the future digital ecosystem and cyberspace will be built on new technologies and apps. Digital market giants such as leading tech companies are undoubtedly one of these key elements.”

“Meanwhile, the rise of TikTok in recent years has seen it become one of the very few competitors to Facebook, Google and others.”

“Throughout the [TikTok] hearing, there was a common feeling among onlookers that ‘Xiang Zhuang was dancing with a sword’ [i.e. the US had ulterior motives]. The US government's wielding of its so-called data security weapon [数据安全大杀器] was the nominal focus of the questioning. However, members of the hearing committee consistently turned a deaf ear to the data security protection model that TikTok had agreed on during its discussions with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Instead, they latched onto its Chinese-owned background and wouldn’t let go of this. Before the hearing, FBI Director Chris Wray claimed that the Chinese government could control TikTok's activities in the US remotely. During the hearing, House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chair Rodgers and [Ranking Member] Pallone both said that its Chinese-owned background made it impossible for TikTok to adhere to American values and continued to repeat the cliché that TikTok is a Chinese government proxy corporation in the US that has the potential to harm America’s domestic security. After the hearing, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Mark Warner stated that the hearing had failed to allay lawmakers' concerns about TikTok's links to the Chinese government.”

“In fact, as the US side itself admits, all of this is just an excuse [一切只是由头]. According to Glenn Gerstell, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and former general counsel of the US National Security Agency (NSA), the data held by TikTok does not in fact constitute a strategic risk [Comment: As far as I am aware, Glenn Gerstell has not said this. His arguments have been a lot more nuanced. See here and here for some of his thoughts on the matter].”

“Caitlin Chin, another researcher at CSIS, further stated that recent [measures], such as the US DATA Act and the RESTRICT Act, have all been targeted against China, and that TikTok's Chinese-owned background is itself an easy target to attack [Comment: I am not familiar with Caitlin Chin’s views, but here are two of her most recent commentaries on this issue: 1. Banning TikTok Will Not Solve U.S. Online Disinformation Problems; 2. The Plans to Ban TikTok Aren’t Really About TikTok].”

“All this shows that these various acts of political grandstanding [各种粉墨登场式的卖力表演] really have little to do with TikTok itself, which has become nothing more than a political mobilisation ‘tool [工具人]’ for the US government in the digital sphere.”

“Discussions are still underway on how to resolve this issue properly. For example, Justin Sherman, a researcher at the Atlantic Council, a US think tank, believes that the solution to the TikTok issue should not be limited to the binary choice of banning or not banning it. Additionally, US Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken has said that, apart from a ban, there were [other] ways of addressing the TikTok problem [Comment: In response to the question ‘Shouldn’t a threat to United States security be banned?’, Blinken’s word-for-word answer was, ‘It should be ended one way or another. But there are different ways of doing that’].”

“James Lewis, senior vice president of the American think tank CSIS, also recommended that while the US should take action against TikTok, it should not be banned [Comment: Since no references were provided in this article, the authors could be referring to Lewis’s argument that it would be unconstitutional to ban TikTok on account of America’s right to free speech]. Instead, CFIUS [could] set oversight conditions and form an oversight committee, thereby reducing the national security risks posed by TikTok.”

“In reality, however, these solutions will be treating only the symptoms and not the root cause [‘治标’不‘治本’]. That is because the issue itself is a result of the ‘politicisation’ of [the US’s] tech and industrial policies. If the politicisation problem is not addressed in a fundamental way, not only will the plight of TikTok itself be difficult to resolve, but one can even foresee many other such ‘TikTok’ incidents emerging in other areas.”

“Although the final outcome of the [TikTok] case has not yet been decided, the longer-term and deeper ramifications of this event have already emerged. These deserve deep consideration and very close attention. For example, does this episode indicate that the US government's regulation of global cyberspace is set to shift further from ‘behind the scenes’ to ‘the front of the stage’ [从’幕后’走向’台前’]? Well-known global cyber-surveillance incidents such as ‘PRISM gate’ have shown that the US’s [attitude towards] cyber-surveillance has both a dark and a light side. Ostensibly, [the US] has been a proponent of so-called freedom and equality online and has been promoting the flow of data and content. But following the TikTok saga, the international community is [now] worried that as Washington’s digital and online policies become increasingly assertive and politicised, its intervention in and regulation of [this space] will intensify. As Marietje Schaake, a researcher at Stanford University's Cyber Policy Centre and former Member of the European Parliament, has said, a by-product of [America’s] oversight of TikTok has been that the US has recognised the failure of its so-called hands-off approach towards online businesses and that a political consensus is emerging in government to further regulate cyberspace.”

“In light of this, there have been increasing concerns about the further fragmentation of the internet. As Lewis claims, a US ban on TikTok is bound to trigger Chinese countermeasures. Alena Epifanova, a researcher at the German Council on Foreign Relations, believes that should a US ban trigger an escalation in conflicting US and Chinese policies, the impact would go far beyond China and the US and could jeopardise the future of the global internet. Katja Muñoz, [another] researcher at the German Council on Foreign Relations, says that a US ban could trigger emulation around the world, setting a bad precedent for internet protectionism across countries and prompting the introduction of more bans against online businesses, which would be extremely destructive.”

“Therefore, from the perspective of geopolitical security and strategic rivalry, the TikTok issue may be only the tip of the iceberg. But the entire future of the online and digital space ecosystem will be shaped by [the fact that] ‘many a little makes a muckle’ [聚沙成塔: lit. grains of sand put together can make a tower] or even ‘dripping water turns into ice’ [滴水成冰]. If incidents like TikTok were to occur again and again, the [world’s] digital future would indeed be a worrying one. In this sense, the TikTok saga cannot be given enough strategic scrutiny and attention.”

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1. The information regarding Li Yan is tentative and was collected using three different sources: 1, 2 and 3.