China’s state-run Global Times on Wednesday gleefully cited President Joe Biden’s campaign page on TikTok as evidence that the U.S. government has been lying about the dangers of the Chinese-run spyware social media app.
“As a social media app that has been heavily portrayed by the US as a ‘national security threat,’ TikTok being used by Biden’s campaign highlights the unjust suppression of TikTok by American politicians and proves the hype nonsense,” the Chinese Communist paper said.
The Global Times appeared to accuse Biden of being so desperate in the face of sinking poll numbers that he does not care if his campaign promotes an app that he knows is a legitimate national security threat, quoting the Hill’s observation that Biden was probably using TikTok in “an effort to win over younger voters.” The latest poll on the subject showed Biden only four points ahead of former President Donald Trump with voters under 35, an enormous loss of ground from Biden’s 20-point lead with the younger demographic in the 2020 election.
“The opening of a TikTok account by Biden’s campaign team to attract young voters reflects the deep hypocrisy of American politicians,” the state newspaper proclaimed. “When the US needs to hype up the theory that ‘China threatens American hegemony in the world,’ TikTok is viewed by US politicians as a tool ‘manipulated by China.'”
“However, when it comes to politicians’ own interests, it becomes a tool to get closer to the public, reflecting how utilitarian American politics is,” the article concluded. “In the end, we are witnessing that Washington’s behavior toward TikTok is unacceptable to the public and society, so politicians have to choose to compromise for votes.”
The Global Times accused Americans, citing Biden’s use of Tiktok, of holding “double standards” that are “fundamentally untenable.”
The Global Times crowed about how influential TikTok has become with America’s youth, citing surveys showing that a third of Americans under 30 rely on the dubious Chinese Communist app for their news.
“TikTok has become the main source of news and information for Gen Z in the U.S.,” the Global Times declared. Sadly, the astonishing turnout of pro-Hamas supporters on campuses after the October 7 rape and murder spree by the Palestinian terrorists suggests this is no idle boast.
Students gather at Harvard University to show their support for Palestinians in Gaza at a rally in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 14, 2023. (JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
In a passage the Global Times preferred not to quote, the Hill wondered: “Should any U.S. president be using a Chinese-owned, Communist Party-controlled social media platform to win re-election?”
The Hill called Biden’s decision “bizarre” and “contradictory” because his own Democrat Party knows TikTok is dangerous, and Biden himself has signed legislation banning it from government electronics:
The bipartisan membership of the U.S. House’s Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party recently described TikTok as a “threat to U.S. national security” and warned that Americans may be “unwittingly compromising themselves to [Chinese Communist Party] surveillance and influence.” The Committee’s Ranking Member, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), noted that “China-based employees are able to both manipulate the algorithm underlying TikTok and also…access U.S. user data.”
After the congressional testimony of TikTok’s CEO, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) warned that his “lack of transparency” and “repeated misstatements of fact…severely undermined the credibility of any statements by TikTok employees.”
Of Biden’s use of TikTok, Warner said he worried about “a mixed message.” He suggested the U.S. should “follow India, which has prohibited TikTok.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray warned in 2023 that China could use TikTok to harvest data from its 100 million American users, and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has been cited for complicity in the Chinese Communist Party’s digital surveillance regime, including surveillance tied to the Uyghur genocide.
WATCH: TikTok CEO Does Not Deny Bytedance Has Access to Americans’ Data
House Committee on Energy and CommerceAs the Hill pointed out in another segment the Global Times did not quote, the Biden administration mysteriously began parroting Chinese Communist Party propaganda about Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations into Chinese influence in February 2022, disbanding the DOJ’s China Initiative and lifting disclosure requirements imposed on universities that take Chinese money.
Combined with Biden’s attempt to make friends with dictator Xi Jinping during the latter’s visit to San Francisco in November, these Chinese Communist-friendly moves and Biden’s embrace of TikTok look like a significant shift from confronting Beijing in Biden administration policy.
