Does the Chinese authorities have officials inside TikTok’s family company, ByteDance, pulling the strings? And is Americans protected by the popular social media app’s non-Chinese storage of data?
These issues seem to predominate in the US right now regarding whether to outlaw TikTok if its owner, Chinese technology company ByteDance, wo n’t sell the platform.
Both questions, in my opinion, which I developed over the course of my 40 years of study of China, political economy, and firm, unclear a more intriguing point. In addition, they raise a serious mistake about how well-developed state and private enterprise are in China.
Simply put, there’s no distinct line between the state and society in China in the same way that there is in democracies. The Chinese Communist Party, which is a synonym for the Chinese condition, both owns and is the country. And that goes for private businesses, also. They operate like mutual ventures where the state is the owner and the director in the end.
Both sides know that’s the case, even if the relationship is n’t expressly codified and recognizable to outside onlookers.
ByteDance under the telescope
Consider ByteDance. The US has become a magnet for scrutiny for the company, mainly due to the significant impact that its conglomerate has had on young people’s life. Some 170 million Americans use TikTok, and US officials worry that ByteDance, which has its head headquarters in Beijing, will guide its people ‘ information back to the Chinese state.
Putting off place, concerned Americans cite the testimony of former ByteDance employees who raise concerns about Chinese government intervention. According to them, the condition has quietly seized a strong interest and a table seat from Beijing ByteDance Technology Co Ltd, ByteDance’s Chinese conglomerate.
Shou Zi Chew, the Singaporean CEO of TikTok, grilled by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in March 2023, unambiguously remarked that ByteDance was no” an agent of China or any other land.”
The background of the Chinese government’s dealings with personal businesses suggests something more gentle, yet.
The emergence of China Inc.
The Chinese Communist Party has attempted to exercise control over all aspects of the nation, including its market, over the course of its century-long story. In its first years, this command took the form of a heavy-handed demand market where everything was produced and consumed according to state plans.
After Mao Zedong, the People’s Republic of China, passed away, China moved in a more capitalist course in the latter half of the 20th century. However, Deng Xiaoping’s changes in the late 1970s and 1980s, which were credited with boosting China’s business, were in the interests of the party.
Because China’s market was in ruins, the group’s focus was on economic growth, and it loosened its grip on power to promote that. It was still important for party power to continue; it just needed to reform the business to accomplish that goal.
That did n’t mean the party wanted pluralism. The Chinese authorities once more began to shift its target to complete control of China after years of economic rise and with a GDP that was above the US’s when measured by purchasing power parity.
The Taiwanese government has clearly chosen to run the country as a gigantic organization with the leadership of the ruling party in place of the extremely centralized control of Xi Jinping.
A group with uncommon power
Unlike social events in republics, which people easily join and leave, the Chinese Communist Party resembles a secret world. To add, you must first be met by two group members, have a protracted testing period, and then pledge to sacrifice your life for the cause of the party. Additionally, it needs the party’s endorsement before it can be stopped. Orders are tacit, and protecting one’s excellent is important.
People who do n’t cooperate face serious consequences. A citizen who disobeyed the executive’s order in Covid testing would be significantly impacted by his obstinate behavior in the year 2022.
Similar to companies, Ride-sharing company Didi suffered from the group’s disapproval after listing its stock in the US, and as a result, was severely punished and forced to delist, losing more than 80 % of its price.
All surviving and powerful private organizations are gathering followers, whether voluntarily or not, because those who disobey the group are weeded out or punished and seen to have learned their lesson.
Even experienced Chinese businesses were caught off guard by the rapid growth of China Inc. Take a look at Sun Dawu‘s case as an example of a successful agricultural investor who has fought for remote reform and the right of farmers. That offended the organization, so officials seized all of his property in 2020 and sentenced him to an 18-year prison term.
As if that were n’t enough, China’s National Intelligence Law grants broad powers to the country’s spy agencies and obligates companies to assist with intelligence efforts. Some American politicians are worried that ByteDance might be required to give the Chinese government their personal information.
TikTok disputes this to say. But, recently leaked files of I- Immediately, a Chinese hacking firm, reveal that people- private collusion in data sharing is common in China.
That’s why I’m never convinced by TikTok’s reasoning that British customers ‘ files are safe because they’re stored outside of China, in the US, Malaysia and Singapore. Whether the party elects people to the ByteDance table or gives TikTok explicit instructions is irrelevant, in my opinion.
Regardless of whether ByteDance has formal ties to the organization, there will be the clear understanding that the administration is working for two leaders: the company’s shareholders and, more importantly, their political advisors who represent the organization. But most important, when the passions of the two leaders issue, the group trumps.
In consequence, I think ByteDance may use TikTok as long as ByteDance owns it, not just for the health of the ByteDance and TikTok employees and their families, but also for the sake of its own business survival.
Shaomin Li is an Old Dominion University professor of global organization.
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