In this episode of China Insider, China Center Director Miles Yu analyzes the landmark ruling by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals against TikTok that upholds legal protection of free speech against foreign adversaries’ malign influence. He also discusses a new opinion survey revealing the pulse of the nation on the United States’ leadership in world affairs, the dramatic uptick of positive sentiment against China, and America’s commitment to the defense and sovereignty of Taiwan.
China Insider is a weekly podcast project from Hudson Institute’s China Center, hosted by Miles Yu, who provides weekly news that mainstream American outlets often miss, as well as in-depth commentary and analysis on the China challenge and the free world’s future.
Episode Transcript
This transcription is automatically generated and edited lightly for accuracy. Please excuse any errors.
Miles Yu:
Welcome to China Insider, a podcast from the Hudson Institute's China Center. I am Miles Yu, senior fellow and director of the China Center. Join me each week for our analysis of the major events concerning China, China threat and their implications to the US and beyond. Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to China Insider once again. Today I'd like to discuss two topics. One is the landmark court ruling against TikTok. Two, I'd like to discuss a new defense survey among Americans, particularly in relationship with China. Let me talk about the TikTok court ruling. Each month more than 150 million Americans, that's about half the population, use the popular social media application called TikTok. TikTok is obviously a subsidiary of the Chinese IT company, ByteDance that as all corporate entities, big and small in China are legally required through its constitution and the 2017 PRC National Intelligence law, in particular. To work with the Chinese communist parties, intelligence and espionage organizations.
The US government has regarded TikTok for many years as a national security risk. As a matter of fact, President Donald Trump issued a presidential executive order banning TikTok during his first term, another Chinese app, WeChat was also banned by that executive order, which I think was back in 2019. But the executive order issued by President Trump was challenged in the US Court somewhere in California, and the executive order was overturned. However, the threat posed by TikTok to America continue unabated. So, in April of this year, 2024, Congress passed a law called Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, also known as PAFACAA. President Biden immediately signed this congressional bill into law on April 24th, just one day after the passage. This law has a specific clause tailored just for TikTok demanding ByteDance and TikTok to sell the application, or it will be banned effective January 19th, 2025, which is fast approaching. So TikTok quickly sued the US government against the law claiming this law violates TikTok’s First Amendment free speech right. Last week on December 6th, the court of appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit render its unanimous ruling against TikTok, saying that “First Amendment does not protect free speech of an adversary country. Another quote, the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary's ability to gather data on people in the United States”.
So, this ruling is indeed a very important, and I call it the live market ruling. The government responded with joy and glee. The Justice Department issue a statement saying, I quote, “today's decision is an important step in blocking the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to collect sensitive information about millions of Americans to covertly manipulate the content delivered to American audiences and to undermine our national security”. In another statement, the US government, the lawyers from the Justice Department also said, “this ruling confirms that the law Congress passed and the Justice Department, the work to defend it have never been about restricting free speech, but rather breaking the ties that bind TikTok to the regime in Beijing, this law protects Americans from the national security risks posed by the current ownership of TikTok in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution”. Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it.
It is clear to me that the most important aspect of this landmark ruling is a court's reaffirmation and acknowledgement of China as a foreign adversary. Well, you might ask, what is a foreign adversary? To answer that question, let me first explain what is CFR, which stands for Code of Federal Regulations. This is the compilation of rules and regulations in the US Federal Register as a codified set of laws that are legally binding. In other words, code of federal regulations is the US law. Now, let's say what the Code of Federal Regulations said about who are America’s, foreign adversaries in Title 15, section 791.4, the code of federal regulations officially designate six countries as US foreign adversaries. They are so designated because, and I quote, they have “engaged in a long pattern or serious instances of conduct significantly adverse to the national security of the United States or security and safety of United States persons.”
And these six countries are China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela. So ladies, gentlemen, this statute in the US Code of Federal Regulations alone should have enough legal power to ban apps like TikTok. It is a pity that our legal system has been so outrageously exploited and manipulated by the internet application controlled by the top adversary of the United States. Well, one final note on this TikTok abomination. While we have been sweating over TikTok ban for so many years in the United States, the Chinese government has a ban all, I use the word all on US social media applications inside China today. If you live in China, you will be unable to access the following apps because they're all banned by the Chinese government. The list is very long. Let me just begin. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit, WhatsApp, Google Search, Google Map, Google Mail, Google Play Store, Google Drive, Wikipedia, Dropbox, Slack, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, the Guardian, Bloomberg News, Reuters, Yahoo News, Voice of America, and Radio Free Asia.
The list goes on and on. So the point is that China is a totalitarian country ruled by a totalitarian political party. Much of the Chinese totalitarianism rests on totalitarian control of free speech and free flow of information. TikTok’s mission from the perspective of CCP in my opinion, is to extend that information totalitarianism to the wider world. Therefore, it must be banned. I say good riddance. Now let me talk about the second topic of this week, which is a comprehensive survey by the Reagan National Defense Institute. This is a seventh such survey conducted by the National Institute of Ronald Reagan in California. The survey itself was conducted between November 8th and November 14th, just a few days after the election. There are a total responses of about 2,510. This large pool of respondents includes 1008 phone interviews, of which 49% of them are landlines, 50% of them are cell phones, and the average length of the phone interviews last about 20 minutes.
In addition to the 1008 phone interviews, there are also 1,502 online responses. You add it up and the margin of error is about plus or minus 2%, which is kind of low. The upshot is that this is a fairly accurate poll covering all demographics. Landlines tend to be older, more established individuals normally in their family, cell phones, mostly used by younger people. So, you got the older and young, and you also have a wide range of Republicans and Democrats about 50/50. So, what's also significant is the length of interview, which is quite long, averaged about 20 minutes. It shows the respondent's seriousness and they are not conducted in the haphazard or casual way. So the answer should be taken very seriously. Now, one of the main conclusions of this survey, there are several of them. Number one, the survey says, and I quote, “a record, high number of Americans supporting American leadership and international engagement as a strong support continues for global military posture. A bipartisan majority or 57% believes the United States should be more engaged and take the lead in international events. This represents a significant 15-point increase since just last year, and a steady upward trend from a low point in the early 2020s.” In other words, basically since the beginning of the Biden administration. So, conclusion number two, I quote, “younger Americans are driving this shift since the last year. The preference for US leadership and engagement has increased by 32 points for those under the age of 30 and by 19 points for those between the age of 30 and 44.” So that's pretty telling. Conclusion number three is this, “China is America's number one adversary. A whopping 49% of those surveyed believe China poses the greatest threat to the United States, only 26% or roughly about half of them believe Russia is the leading threat to the US” and those were top two and then followed by Iran and North Korea, which normally fell into the upper low, low single digits.
Number four, which is actually very surprising and also is very a telling that is it's about Taiwan. The survey found out that the US popular support for Taiwan has increased dramatically according to the survey. Let me read the whole section on US support for Taiwan. In the survey, “as China escalates pressure on Taiwan, Americans broadly support diplomatic, economic and the military measures to bolster Taiwan's defense and deter Chinese aggression without significant partisan distinctions, a majority, or 61% supports increasing the US military presence near Taiwan and the 55% back increased arms sales to the island. Public declaration of support for Taiwanese autonomy is about 64%, and economic sanctions on China is supported by 65%. These numbers also receive strong bipartisan backing support for a regional defense alliance involving Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific nations is particularly high at 78%. In an event of a Chinese invasion, 73% would support recognized Taiwan as an independent country. 66% favor imposing economic sanctions on China, 58% back moving US military assets into the region, and 56% support sending Taiwan additional military equipment, establishing a no-fly zone, including the possibility of shooting down Chinese warplanes, receive support from half or 51% while about the same percentage, 48% favor committing US forces to Taiwan's defense with a bipartisan agreement on these measures.”
Those co conclusions were astonishing for several reasons. Number one, Americans are not withdrawing from the global stage. This goes against the international anxiety and misperception that Donald Trump's America is reversing to isolationism. That is simply not true. According to this survey, exact opposite is true. America first is not the same as America alone. The survey resoundingly indicates that majority of Americans who voted for Donald Trump as their next president do not want to disengage from the world. On the contrary, they view America's leadership in world affairs as essential and are in favor of it. Number two, the survey is significant is because it also indicates that Americans deeply disapprove the Biden administration's foreign policy that has been awfully ineffective and lacking deterrence impact on bad actors. Number three, I think the survey is meaningful because Americans would like the new administration to keep the focus on China as the greatest threat to the United States and have the popular support for the government to take action against China. Ladies and gentlemen, that's all for this week and hope to exchange more views with you and to hear your feedback. Thank you very much. Goodbye.
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