TikTok: China's Instrument of War

by Gordon G. Chang • March 14, 2024 at 5:00 am

If you have TikTok on a device, you are getting what the Communist Party of China (CCP) wants you to see. The Chinese regime has used its algorithm to disseminate pro-Hamas disinformation, Russian narratives about the Ukraine war, and other pro-CCP propaganda. The Party also uses the app to try to destroy America's young, by flooding them with messages promoting illegal drug use, self-harm, and even suicide.
The TikTok bill... does not violate the First Amendment.... Congress is not trying to regulate what appears on the app.... it does not regulate the content of what is posted.
China's Communist Party this month mobilized TikTok's American users, with deceptive messages, to contact their elected representatives to block the House legislation. Users did so in droves. Imagine if TikTok, in different circumstances, were to push China's other political messages, such as urging the abandonment of, say, Taiwan.
China has even weaponized TikTok, turning it into an instrument of war. The CCP wages what it calls "unrestricted warfare" against America.
The Communist Party of China has no constitutional right to attack America.

If you have TikTok on a device, you are getting what the Communist Party of China wants you to see. The Chinese regime has used its algorithm to disseminate pro-Hamas disinformation, Russian narratives about the Ukraine war, and other pro-CCP propaganda. The Party also uses the app to try to destroy America's young, by flooding them with messages promoting illegal drug use, self-harm, and even suicide. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Yesterday, March 13, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act" by a vote of 352 to 65, with one member voting present.

It was a victory for the United States.

The bill, H.R. 7521, requires the "qualified divestiture" — as determined by the president — of any company controlled by a foreign adversary, within 180 days. The proposed act specifically mentions TikTok, a wildly popular video-sharing app, and its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd. as such companies.

The bill also provides that the president may designate social media apps as "subject to the control of a foreign adversary" and therefore covered by the divestiture rule.

If a divestiture does not occur during the 180-day period, the legislation prohibits U.S. app stores and web hosting services from providing a designated app to the public.

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NATO's 'Welfare' States: Treating the U.S. As 'Room Service'

by Pete Hoekstra • March 14, 2024 at 4:00 am

The NATO alliance today, however, more closely resembles an international welfare program than a true alliance, with most countries failing to meet their defense commitments and instead relying on the generosity of the United States.
As the eminent journalist Amir Taheri put it: "others... treat the US as a 'room service' reachable by pressing a button..."
All of America's leaders also need to embrace the reality that if our allies are unwilling to do more to keep the world safe and secure, we may need to reassess the relationship we have with them, and cease being "room service." Alliances are only alliances when the costs and benefits run both ways. Anything less, especially from the richest countries in Europe, is not only disrespectful, but an unacceptable breach of contract.

Last month, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg conceded what former US President Donald Trump has been warning about for nearly a decade: America's allies are not paying their fair share –as they had agreed -- for national defense. Pictured: Stoltenberg speaks at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the NATO headquarters, in Brussels on February 14, 2024. (Photo by John Thys/AFP via Getty Images)

Last month, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg conceded what former US President Donald Trump has been warning about for nearly a decade: America's allies are not paying their fair share -- as they had agreed -- for national defense. After four years in which Trump held our NATO allies accountable for funding their share of NATO's collective defense, US President Joe Biden has once again allowed many of them to pass significant burdens of NATO spending on to American taxpayers – threatening the security of the NATO alliance in the process.

The very nature of alliances is that they are a two-way street. Americans should rightly expect to realize benefits from U.S. participation in NATO, just as the citizens of other NATO nations can expect to benefit from their country's relationship with the United States.

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