[China Net Review] Take advantage of other countries’ enterprises and start American-style ＂rules and order＂

　　China net commentator Hua Zhang

　　The talk is about "rules" and "order", but what is done behind the scenes is the livelihood of robbers. A few days ago, the United States once again threatened ByteDance to sell TikTok, which showed us the usual tricks of extortion and ugly hegemonism.

　　On January 2nd, Mike Gallagher, an American Republican politician who is about to become the chairman of the China Special Committee of the House of Representatives, made a strange remark in an interview with the media, saying that TikTok owned by ByteDance, a China enterprise, is "digital fentanyl" and an "addictive drug" fed to Americans by the China administration, and the United States should "ban" it.

　　How strange! From paper media to TV stations, from TV stations to online media, and then from traditional online media to today’s mobile social media, the United States, which has mastered technological advantages, is a pioneer or even a leader in every media revolution. Before TikTok was born, there were already social media giants such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter in the United States. If it poisons the minds of young people, these American companies are the first to bear the brunt. In fact, in the unregulated American society, drugs, religious extremism, sexual crimes, racial discrimination and other toxic contents have indeed been widely spread through American social media for many years, leading young people to go astray. The American media has reported this for a long time, but it has not attracted enough attention from the American government. How come these long-neglected problems suddenly become important when China enterprises come? Also became the "original sin" of China company?

　　Gallagher’s other words gave the answer. He said that he was "open-minded" about selling TikTok to American companies, but "the details of the transaction determine success or failure". Coincidentally, a few days ago, The Wall Street Journal quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that some officials of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) were trying to force this app to sell its American business because of concerns about TikTok’s "security issues" to ensure that "China cannot use this app for espionage and political influence". After smearing China enterprises several times, the US government finally came to the rescue. The so-called "Internet addiction" and "national security" are just excuses of the US side. Their real purpose is to buy and sell strongly and dump the assets and brands belonging to China companies into the pockets of American companies.

　　This is not the first time TikTok has faced the risk of being forced to sell. In August, 2020, then US President Trump signed an executive order requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok’s business in the United States within 90 days. Trump announced at the time that the company might take actions that "threatened US national security". Subsequently, ByteDance initiated a lawsuit against the US government. Although a year later, the current President Biden lifted the ban on TikTok, he also asked the US Department of Commerce to evaluate the applications related to "foreign rivals" and "take action as appropriate". This has also laid the groundwork for the US to make a comeback and once again make a move against TikTok.

　　What a familiar script it is to suppress, crowd out, even deliberately frame and persecute foreign enterprises with the intention of dismembering and purchasing their assets. Far away, Alstom, France, was set up by the US government just because it overshadowed the American competitor General Electric, which led to the arrest of the company’s executives and most of its assets and business were taken by General Electric. Nearby is China Huawei. Because its 5G business leads the world and its smartphone sales surpass Apple’s, it was accused by the US government of various unwarranted charges, which led to the forced withdrawal of its communication business from the United States and the supply of high-end chips was cut off. In desperation, Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, has publicly stated that he is willing to sell 5G technology to American companies. This is not only out of confidence in Huawei’s independent innovation ability, but also shows that he has already seen clearly the real purpose of the US government to engage in this trick. Fair competition is not an opponent, so we steal and rob, ignoring basic business ethics and ethics. Is such a robber behavior what American officials call "rules and order"?

　　In recent years, American politicians are keen to preach the so-called "rules-based international order" and attack China as "the only country with the ability and will to change the current international order", deliberately putting China on the opposite side of the "international order" in an attempt to shape China into a public enemy of the international community. However, China, which is committed to promoting the Belt and Road Initiative and building a community of human destiny, has always been a staunch supporter and defender of the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order based on international law. People can’t help but ask: What exactly are the "rules and order" in the mouth of American politicians?

　　Not long ago, an article on the website of Politico pointed out that after the initial actions in the Trump era, the US government has identified any independent innovation in China as a "threat to US national security", with the intention of bringing China’s development in all technical fields to a standstill. It can be seen that the rise of China has not affected the increasingly multipolar international pattern, nor has it undermined the international order based on the principle of multilateralism. Instead, it has touched the old pattern of the United States dominating the world and shaken the old order of "the United States gives orders and other countries can only act according to orders". Therefore, the containment and suppression of China and the restriction and persecution of China enterprises by the United States are by no means out of international morality and justice, but in order to safeguard their self-interest of eternal hegemony.

　　The United States is trying to deprive other countries of the right and possibility of independent development by "rules and order". Not only the people of China will not agree, but also the people of other countries in the world will not agree. The United States, which wields the hegemonic stick at will, will only stand on the opposite side of international rules and order and die in the world.