And symbolism is what it's all about here. For years the US has been accusing China of stifling free speech by banning Facebook and Youtube. Once they ban Tiktok, an entire generation of Americans will realize they've been lied to.
And that matters. Look at HK. See how many youths are brainwashed by American propaganda. Banning Tiktok will be a hammer blow against their delusions.
This is just absurdly wrong, and if you participated in American political culture you would know that.
"Cancel culture", a big deal in American politics, refers to how much liberal Americans love using political correctness to get their ideological enemies fired, banned, deplatformed, and pariahed. It is widespread across the American left and eagerly embraced by the young.
If you want to learn more about this, look up what happened to Bari Weiss and the controversy that produced.
Or just hop in Matt Taibi's Twitter replies.
But if people in China genuinely think this is how it works here in America, then that is pretty bad. Because it shows that neither side has any understanding of each other.
Which may explain Beijing inability to anticipate Trump.
AS a secondary point, liberal Americans don't like "liberal values" because of their genuine benefits. They like them because they denote the "superior" of the American state, irrespective of whether America actually practices those values. They are self congratulatory, which is needed at a time when American elites can do nothing but self congratulate.
AS a consequence, they really don't care if this or that proves America is hypocrite. To Americans, American greatness is taken as a given, and possession of "free speech", "Democracy" or other liberal values is used to retroactively justify that.
You have your causality backwards, which is why this "wait until Americans wake up strategy" has produced such dismal results.
