Category: NYT

What to Know About the TikTok Ban Legislation

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House lawmakers are expected to vote starting at around 10 a.m. on Wednesday on legislation meant to force ByteDance, the Chinese internet company, to sell its wildly popular social media app TikTok. The vote would be the latest development in a yearslong cold war between the United States and China over who controls valuable technology from computer chips to artificial intelligence. Lawmakers and the White House have expressed concerns that TikTok’s Chinese ownership poses a national security risk because Beijing could use the app to gain access to Americans’ data…

The Clock Ticks for TikTok

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Another round in the TikTok fight The warnings against TikTok aren’t letting up, with U.S. security officials saying China is using the platform to meddle in elections and lawmakers calling the video app a global threat. The sharp rhetoric isn’t new, but it raises a question for policymakers and business: Is the new push to force ByteDance, the company’s Chinese owners, to divest a real step change or just political posturing? The House is barreling toward a vote on Wednesday that would force ByteDance to sell. Representative Steve Scalise, Republican…

China’s Exports Surge Are Drawing a Global Backlash

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China’s factory exports are powering ahead faster than almost anyone expected, putting jobs around the world in jeopardy and setting off a backlash that is gaining momentum. From steel and cars to consumer electronics and solar panels, Chinese factories are finding more overseas buyers for goods. The world’s appetite for its goods is welcomed by China, which is enduring a severe downturn in what had been the economy’s biggest driver of growth: building and outfitting apartments. But other countries are increasingly concerned that China’s rise is coming partly at their…

Trump Gives CNBC a Rambling Answer on Why He Backtracked on TikTok Ban

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Former President Donald J. Trump offered a rambling and confusing explanation on Monday of why he had reversed himself on whether the United States should ban TikTok over concerns that its Chinese ownership poses a threat to national security. In a CNBC interview, Mr. Trump said that he still considered the social media app a national security threat but that banning it would make young people “go crazy.” He added that any action harming TikTok would benefit Facebook, which he called an “enemy of the people.” “Frankly, there are a…

China’s Growth Slows but Xi Jinping Keeps to His Vision

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Even with growth faltering in China, Xi Jinping appears imperiously assured that he possesses the right road map to surpass Western rivals. China’s economy has lurched into a slower gear. Its population is shrinking and aging. Its rival, the United States, has built up a lead in artificial intelligence. Mr. Xi’s pronouncement several years ago that the “East is rising and West is declining” — that his country was on the way up while American power shrank — now seems premature, if not outright hubristic. The problems have brought growing…

Three Is Best: How China’s Family Planning Propaganda Has Changed

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For decades, China harshly restricted the number of children couples could have, arguing that everyone would be better off with fewer mouths to feed. The government’s one-child policy was woven into the fabric of everyday life, through slogans on street banners and in popular culture and public art. Now, faced with a shrinking and aging population, China is using many of the same propaganda channels to send the opposite message: Have more babies. The government has also been offering financial incentives for couples to have two or three children. But…

Biden the President Wants to Curb TikTok. Biden the Candidate Embraces Its Stars.

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The White House is so concerned about the security risks of TikTok that federal workers are not allowed to use the app on their government phones. Top Biden administration officials have even helped craft legislation that could ban TikTok in the United States. But those concerns were pushed aside on Thursday, the night of President Biden’s State of the Union address, when dozens of social media influencers — many of them TikTok stars — were invited to the White House for a watch party. The crowd took selfies in the…

Hong Kong Pushes Strict New Security Law With Unusual Speed

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Under pressure from Beijing, officials in Hong Kong are scrambling to pass a long-shelved national security law that could impose life imprisonment for treason, insurrection and colluding with external forces, stiff penalties aimed at further curbing dissent in the Asian financial center. The law known as Article 23 has long been a source of public discontent in Hong Kong, a former British colony that had been promised certain freedoms when it was returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Now, it is expected to be enacted with unusual speed in the…

TikTok Prompts Users to Call Congress to Fight Possible Ban

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Washington lawmakers introduced a bill this week calling for TikTok to cut ties with its Chinese parent company or face a ban in the United States. When many users opened the popular app on Thursday, the company greeted them with a message to oppose the legislation, prompting a flood of phone calls to several Capitol Hill offices. “Stop a TikTok shutdown,” the message on the app read. It included a button for people to call their representatives, saying: “Let Congress know what TikTok means to you and tell them to…

Michael Spavor Reaches Settlement With Canada Over Detention by China

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The government of Canada has reached a financial settlement with one of two Canadian men it contends were arbitrarily detained for nearly three years by China in a retaliatory move, the man’s lawyer said. John K. Phillips, who represents Michael Spavor, told The Associated Press Wednesday evening that “I am only able to say that the matter between Mr. Spavor and the government of Canada has been resolved.” Mr. Spavor, a businessman who had extensive dealings in North Korea, and Michael Kovrig, a then a Canadian diplomat who was on…