As always, @benthompson nails it with China.

"A leaked [Chinese] internal party directive from 2013 describes “the very real threat of Western anti-China forces and their attempt at carrying out westernization” within China. [1/ https://stratechery.com/2020/the-tiktok-war/

The directive describes the party as being in the midst of an “intense, ideological struggle” for survival. According to the directive, the ideas that threaten China with “major disorder” include concepts such as [2/

“separation of powers,” “independent judiciaries,” “universal human rights,” “Western freedom,” “civil society,” “economic liberalism,” “total privatization,” “freedom of the press,” and “free flow of information on the internet." [3/

What spooks [China] more than American [might] are ideas—hostile ideas they believe America has embedded in the discourse and institutions of the existing global order. “International hostile forces [seek to] westernize and divide China” warned former Gral Secretary Jiang Zemin

"The 'old international political and economic order' created by these forces 'has to be changed fundamentally' to safeguard China’s rejuvenation." [4/

We can see this in China's treatment of the @WHO, preventing it from including crucial Taiwanese advice, and pressuring it to present China in a very positive light. [5/

"Xi Jinping has endorsed this view: 'Since the end of the Cold War countries affected by Western values have been torn apart by war or afflicted with chaos. If we tailor our practices to Western values … The consequences will be devastating.'" [6/

"China is not simply resisting Western ideals of freedom, but seeking to impose their own." [7/

Which leads us to TikTok:
"TikTok has seemed to act politically: the service censored #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd, blocked a teenager discussing China’s genocide in Xinjiang, and a video of Tank Man. " [8/

"The Guardian published TikTok guidelines that censored Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, and the Falun Gong [9/

"The point, though, is not just censorship, but its inverse: propaganda. TikTok’s algorithm, unmoored from the constraints of your social network or professional content creators, is free to promote whatever videos it likes, without anyone knowing the difference." [10/

"China has already demonstrated a willingness to censor speech on a platform banned in China; how much of a leap is it to think that a Party committed to ideological dominance will forever leave a route directly into the hearts and minds of millions of Americans untouched?" [11/

"The list of Western companies bullied by China for Western content is long and growing, the country is flooding Twitter and Facebook with coronavirus propaganda, and is leveraging WeChat to spread misinformation and to surveil the Chinese diaspora." [12/

"Wars are fought not because we lust for battle, but because we pray for peace. If China is on the offensive against liberalism not only within its borders but within ours, it is in liberalism’s interest to cut off [TikTok]" [13/

Let's remember that @benthompson, for publishing that, and me for commenting it, expose ourselves to Chinese detention. [14/ https://twitter.com/tomaspueyo/status/1280795236617170944?s=20

Every day that passes without Western countries realizing this threat is another day that China becomes stronger and brings the reduction of our freedoms a bit closer. [15/

The more people realize this, the more Western governments will step up and confront our biggest ideological threat.

Let's stop the Chinese gov's attempts at controlling us.
Instead, let's fight for our freedoms. [16/16]