TikTok Is the Canary in the U.S.-China Coal Mine

With U.S.-China relations at their lowest point in decades, President Joe Biden went into his meeting Monday with China’s top leader, General Secretary Xi Jinping, looking to “build a floor for the relationship.” The long-delayed meeting looked like it could prove to be a turning point in bilateral diplomacy, but in the tech sphere, the bottom is nowhere in sight.

Over more than a decade, U.S. and Chinese policymakers have come to recognize that the two countries’ deep interdependence in digital industries poses novel security risks. Tech ecosystems have thrived on cross-border supply chains and collaboration among designers, engineers and manufacturers in the two countries, yet those close ties could be weaponized. Supply chain disruptions caused by crises or governments could cripple major firms. Intelligence services could leverage their access to services or products for spying or sabotage. This potentially destabilizing mutual vulnerability calls for a little bit more independence.