Former President Donald Trump likes to claim that he’ll get tough on China should he be elected president on Nov. 5. Trump’s actions last week strongly suggest otherwise.
First up, Trump came out in opposition to a looming U.S. restriction on the TikTok social media app. He says the app is less of a problem than what he described as “enemy of the people” Meta. This is presumably because Meta previously banned Trump from Facebook. But Trump should understand that while TikTok is a servant of the people, it’s not a servant of the American people. It’s a servant of the People’s Republic of China. TikTok exists under the Chinese Communist Party dominion.
Next, meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at Mar-a-Lago, Trump declared that there’s “nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orbán. He’s fantastic.” Both these actions will bring a gleeful smile to the face of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Orban, after all, is Xi’s most loyal obstacle to tougher European Union action against Beijing. Trump’s support for Orban will give the Hungarian leader confidence and political cover to continue his service of China’s interests in Europe.
The TikTok concern is simple: TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. And as with all Chinese companies, especially technology companies, ByteDance is required by law to provide both physical access and political loyalty to the CCP. Beijing’s influence is most obviously reflected by TikTok’s censorship of issues sensitive to the CCP and its promotion of issues that align with CCP priorities. But ByteDance’s need to follow Beijing’s diktats means that the app is incompatible with U.S. national security. Hence, why President Joe Biden (even though his campaign hypocritically operates a TikTok account) has pledged to sign looming legislation that would ban the app unless ByteDance sells it to a non-CCP controlling entity. That legislation is set for a vote in the House of Representatives this week.
The central U.S. fear with ByteDance is not that Beijing might use its control to influence teenagers political opinions. Rather, it is the concern that Beijing’s immense espionage apparatus will employ the app to collect information on the identity, preferences, vulnerabilities, and location of TikTok users in America.
Befitting China’s espionage focus on collecting big data to allow follow-on intelligence targeting and influence operations, TikTok offers a priceless access point into U.S. society. TikTok has previously been caught sending American data back to Beijing, and its pledges of new transparency are worth little. As with Huawei’s 5G networks, China will simply hide malicious backdoor code within the app and then claim unintentional network vulnerabilities/design errors whenever this code is detected. That brings us back to Trump. The former president surely understands the nature of the Chinese intelligence machinery from intelligence briefings during his time in office. Thus follows the question.
Why does Trump suddenly oppose the ByteDance divestment legislation after previously supporting a ban as president? Why does he take this stance even though he himself admits TikTok poses a national security threat?
The answer appears to be a simple one. Namely, as is always the case with Trump, his mirror has told him that his personal interest and the national interest are one and the same. In this case, Trump has recently been feted by the billionaire conservative donor Jeff Yass. Yass owns a stake in TikTok and wants to avoid any divestment that might damage his financial interests. The New York Post reports that Yass has been calling members of Congress to warn them that if they support the divestment legislation, they’ll lose out on his future donations. Put simply, Trump supported a ban, then, after receiving Yass’s patronage, immediately opposed a ban.
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It is Yass’s right to advocate his personal interests, of course. As with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, many American businessmen put their wallets before patriotism. But those running for elected office shouldn’t entertain the luxury of this calculation. The oath they will take on entering office means that they should always put the nation first.
So, yes, Trump wants Yass’s money and support. And yes, while Trump may also believe TikTok offers a valuable campaign opportunity, that’s no excuse for his stance here. Trump should be following Biden’s example and pledging to approve any divestment requirement that comes out of Congress. Either that, or Trump must accept that when it comes to espionage threats, Biden is tougher on China than he is.
