- By now, the world community is quite familiar with the intransigence, aggressiveness, ambitions, and devil-may-care-attitude of the Chinese administration whose relentless pursuit to disrupt the accepted global orders is well documented. The brazenness displayed by the communist regime in claiming neighboring territories illegally over the last few years have brought out like-minded countries together. India too has tasted Chinese defiance in the way it tried to usurp the land along the line of actual control leading to the massing of the army over the last three years. It’s become a norm of sorts for the expansionist ambitions of Chinese leadership to claim international territories as its own. No wonder, many countries are aggrieved with China.
PC: zack-beauchamp
- Indeed, the world is increasingly moving away from being unipolar led by the USA to a multipolar one. And the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has only further fragmented the world communities vertically. However, undeniably, the presence of Chinese imprints in one or the other form in our lives is a fact that cannot be disputed. We are also aware of Chinese moves to embrace cutting-edge cyber technology to not only spy on the global communities’ security apparatus but also influence several matters of national importance. When Chinese incursion and subsequent skirmishes ensued along the eastern border, the Indian leadership took several measures to counter the same. And one of the measures was to ban the popular video app TikTok outright.
- Since then, many countries have joined the bandwagon. The recent one to join is Australia banning TikTok over spying concerns. The Chinese-owned short video app now is prohibited from government phones and devices in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, EU institutions, France, and Belgium. The US is mulling a complete ban following a spying incident. Concerns that TikTok is leveraged for espionage were proved correct when recently its China-based parent company Byte Dance fired employees in China and the US who tracked IP addresses of journalists using the app, in a bid to ascertain if they were in the same location as employees suspected of information leaks. The collection of data and targeting of users is integral to Big Tech businesses.
PC: Opinion piece
- Devices are constantly informing companies what we do, and where we are. What makes TikTok a particular threat is its parent company’s jurisdiction based in China. Spying apart, anxieties about addiction to the app are real but can hardly be restricted to TikTok. Worryingly, millions are addicted to Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram. Apart from these apps, Chinese-manufactured tools, equipment, furniture, and several items of daily usage including pooja paraphernalia too are indispensable in our lives. Will the global community purge these presences in the foreseeable future? Unlikely, since replacing China-manufactured items would take concerted efforts running into years despite the country’s leadership making efforts to ease them out.
