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> the CCP sabotaged and overthrew the Chinese Nationalist Party (now Taiwan) government exactly by exploiting its liberal constitution and free speech

This is some really bad history. The Nationalist Party was no defender of free speech.

The Chinese Civil War began in April 1927, when the Nationalists rounded up and executed thousands of Communists in Shanghai and other major cities.[1] What made this massacre even more shocking was that the Nationalists were allied with the Communists up until the moment they carried out the purge. That event set off the Civil War.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre

Why should US policy makers care what Chinese public opinion is?

Don't have to, but unless the policy is seperate the people and the party and win over the people.

https://www.state.gov/communist-china-and-the-free-worlds-fu...

>He was a brilliant student of China, a fierce cold warrior, and a tremendous admirer of the Chinese people, just as I think we all are.

>We must also engage and empower the Chinese people – a dynamic, freedom-loving people who are completely distinct from the Chinese Communist Party.

>So to somehow think that we ought to ignore the voices of the people of China seems to me the wrong approach... But it seems to me we would dishonor ourselves and the people of China if we ignored them.

> Don't have to, but unless the policy is seperate the people and the party and win over the people.

I am not sure why that would be the US's problem.

I have no doubt the that CCP will be able to control the media narrative within their own country. I just don't care. That was always going to be the case.

Isn't this whole new cold war all about the US trying to contain China? the failed "prosperity then freedom" China policy for the past thirty years all about? It's perfectly normal to not care, but "Policy makers" care.

> Isn't this whole new cold war all about the US trying to contain China? the failed "prosperity then freedom" China policy for the past thirty years all about?

It has become clear that China is not on the road towards freedom. That theory failed.

And it is because that failed, that we need to take a new approach to things. The way to get China to change, is to pressure them to change.

And we can pressure them, with economic pressure, by engaging in some of the same tactics that they use against us.

If they are going to defect, eventually we have to respond in kind, in order to not put ourselves at a disadvantage.

> Right now the public opinion in China (not mine) is that India and America are hypocritical bullies and abusing the "national security" excuse, while China "never banned" any foreign web services, those "simply refused to comply with Chinese laws regarding terrorism" and their "inaccessibility" totally justified.

This is definitely not a public opinion.

Public opinion in US is splited like it always is in every single matter.

I agree on the ban... or, at least, they should take a closer look regarding national security.

Sending a lot of citizen personal info to the opposite super power like China and Russia does seem concerning, don't you agree?

> This is definitely not a public opinion.

OP means this is the public opinion in China, not in US. Or at least that's the public opinion that CCP wants to install. And unfortunately most of the people surrounding me agree this. And I can't argue with them without convincing them the "sometimes misguided censorship" is deliberate and people should not accept censorship in the first place (if most of them do China would have already been different). It's literally a trap.

Ah yes I misread it.

Public opinion in China is going to be almost always anti-US. That's just regular propaganda for decades.

It's not safe to have differing view in China regarding nationalism.

Not sure why this is news though.

because contrary to what you believe, many Chinese looked up to aspects of the US.

I doubt that is true. There may be some percentage that supports US. But definitely not the majority.

I'd guess it's a very small percentage.

look, things aren't binary.. No, it's not "support", obviously they largely stand by their country over the US. But it's not North Korea; they understand that life is good in the US, propaganda aside. They don't think our systems don't work _in general_, they think it wouldn't work _for them_

to directly answer your question, if you think this is a war of ideology, this move doesn't do the US any favors, regardless of how necessary or justified it is

I'd say banning TikTok has a small downside. Sending citizen info to the opposing super power should be prevented (it's not binary like you said, but the risk is high, so the impact is potentially high). The downside is some Chinese will look at US as hypocritical.

Fine.

Here are 3 geopoltical issues that are way bigger than TikTok banning: Hong Kong, Taiwan, disputed islands on South China sea with Vietnam and Philippines. These issues evoke much stronger nationalism.

A large portion of Chineses probably already look at US as very bad guy regarding these 3 geopolitical issues already. Trying to turn Chinese's regular person to be positive by not banning TikTok is not worth it.

It's not like "oh yeah, I like US now because they don't ban tiktok, even though they try to help taiwan, hong kong, and etc. It's fine. TikTok is way more important here." Probably said no Chinese person ever.

Don't anymore since Huawei and COVID-19, it has always been a minority and got smaller.

It's still what I said, the CCP doesn't care that much about who has data on its citizens, the amount they have could never match the party's anyway, and the measures being taken made it so that potential subversion is unlikely. It's a different story outside China and still the US's to lose.

When 95% of the comments on Weibo are like what I said, I think it's pretty safe to say it is public opinion.

Yes, I misread it.

But even without TikTok matter, the general opinion in China would be anti-US anyway, no?

US is a bad guy to China regarding many matters like Hong Kong, Taiwan, islands on South China sea with Vietnam and Philippines.

This is not anyway unique to TikTok's matter. Tiktok problem seems pretty mild.