A breakthrough has been achieved in the high-profile TikTok issue. On Sept 14-15, Chinese and US economic delegations, led by Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, held talks on economic and trade issues in Madrid, and agreed to jointly resolve the TikTok and other issues. The Madrid talks opened a window of opportunity to address the issues preventing the normalization of Sino-US relations and resolution of the disputes on advanced technology. The trajectory of the dispute over TikTok shows the United States is in a structural predicament over its technology policy toward China: its strategy of putting excessive pressure on China is significantly constrained by domestic political, economic and social factors.

The US administration, for some years now, has been using “national security” as a pretext to justify its unilateral policies, but its failure to provide evidence to justify its actions has prompted many international observers to view its moves as a form of protectionism, which undermines the very market principles the US purports to champion. By exerting political pressure on TikTok and damaging the global company, the US has raised widespread concern over its business environment. This also conflicts with the US’ aim of attracting more capital and........

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