TikTok: The ticking time bomb of the US-China relationship

Thursday, May 23, 2024 | 7:00 pm PDT

Since 2019, in the words of Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping, has been waging a “people’s war” against America. The regime’s aggressive influence operations, theft of intellectual property, and facilitating fentanyl trafficking in America are legion. Yet some of the best-known China scholars and Wall Street investors continue to push “engagement” at any cost, with Harvard scholar Graham Allison recently describing the U.S.-China relationship as conjoined twins, sharing a digestive system. 

TikTok has been described as everything from the greatest weapon the CCP deploys against America and the West, to purely a free speech platform, to a platform that must be kept out of the hands of the U.S. administrative state at any cost. Even Trump considered banning TikTok during his presidency, but today seems to have backtracked on such ambitions. Prominent Republicans and Democrats are found on both sides of the issue. What’s the reality?

In this deep dive with Epoch Times senior editor and “American Thought Leaders” host Jan Jekielek, we expose the TikTok reality by considering how the platform operates from first principles. We’ll dive into the Chinese regime’s national intelligence laws, Xi’s top national priorities such as military-civil fusion, how the CCP uses lawfare and high-powered lobbying, and the “unholy trinity” of Chinese influence operations. We will also explore the new legislation that recently passed the House to force China’s ByteDance to divest TikTok, Will this legislation also provide a pretext to quell free speech in America? We’ll discuss all these things combined with a lively Q&A.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKER:
Jan Jekielek is a senior editor with The Epoch Times, host of the show “American Thought Leaders” and co-host of “FALLOUT” with Dr. Robert Malone and “Kash’s Corner” with Kash Patel. Jan’s career has spanned academia, international human rights work, and now for almost two decades, media. He has interviewed nearly a thousand thought leaders on camera, and specializes in long-form discussions challenging the grand narratives of our time. He’s also an award-winning documentary filmmaker, producing “The Unseen Crisis: Vaccine Stories You Were Never Told,” “DeSantis: Florida vs. Lockdowns,” and “Finding Manny.”