Seeing the blitz of TikTok advertising and stories the past few days as TikTok fights to buy time (incl some fairly puffy pieces on the company from serious journalistic outfits who should know better), been reminded of what I wrote last year about another PRC tech giant, Huawei:

"Another powerful intermediary in the CCP’s information warfare arsenal is Huawei itself. The company’s nominal status as a private, nonstate actor allows it to directly manipulate democratic information spaces using the familiar tools of corporate image-making—lobbying...

public relations, and advertising—in ways that no government ever credibly could." https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/06/huaweis-pr-campaign-comes-straight-from-the-partys-playbook/

Tiktok is *much* better at this than Huawei. From the start they were much more cosmopolitan, and clearly are much better about seeking advice from people saavy on image-making outside China and taking it. Being plugged into big global VCs from the start obviously helped.

I hesitate to say this is the future of China Inc in markets outside China. Not clear who the next global champion to rise will be.

But the PRC corporate sector has proven it is *clearly* capable of producing companies that can stand globally on the merits of their products. On balance, I would hesitate to bet against the rise of another consumer-facing success story like bytedance.

It saddens me a little, thinking about what Bytedance is dealing with. Great Chinese entrepreneurs deserve the chance to compete on the biggest stage possible, and to see their drive and creativity rewarded accordingly.

But the Party has made clear where it stands. It leads all, and has very little patience for disobedience. The only thing preventing the misuse of China's corporate champions by the CCP is the Party's own forbearance. If MSS or the PLA come knocking, they cannot say no.

So it's never going to be possible to escape a vague sense of disquiet watching large, wealthy PRC corps wage increasingly sophisticated public relations battles abroad. The shadow of the Party behind them can never be ignored or forgotten.

In fighting to protect their presence in other countries, they are also, unavoidably, fighting to protect the Party's presence. It's a Catch 22 for these companies, and for people in other countries who want to show respect for Chinese entrepreneurs' efforts and right to succeed.

Present company included. For these companies' sake I wish they didn't have the Party breathing down their neck. But they do, and other countries have an obligation to their people to act with this fact in mind.