Following a phone call between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, reports suggest that the two countries are on the cusp of a deal to approve U.S. ownership of the controversial social media app TikTok. The development comes as reports are emerging from China indicating that the communist regime is engaging in a new crackdown against the online activities of pastors and youth evangelization efforts.
With the rising popularity of the Chinese-owned and operated social media app TikTok, which has approximately 170 million active American users and over 1.5 billion monthly active users worldwide, has come a torrent of concerns from parents, lawmakers, and national security experts. Studies of the app have shown that young teens are “inundated with videos about eating disorders, body image, self-harm and suicide,” with parents in multiple countries suing the social media giant following the suicide of their children. Experts say the app also pushes videos espousing transgender ideology to minors. In addition, the Department of Justice alleged last year that sensitive user data collected from TikTok was being stored on servers in China.
The concerns culminated in Congress taking action, passing legislation last year that required TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the app to an American company within 270 days or risk a ban in the U.S. Now, reports suggest that Trump and Xi are close to reaching a deal on the U.S. acquiring the company, but details on the deal remain murky.
Gordon Chang, an author and a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, analyzed the potential deal during Friday’s “Washington Watch.”
“There are three things here — there’s ownership, data security, and the curation of the algorithm,” he explained. “And it appears on the first two that President Trump got a really good deal from the Chinese. The third one we don’t know about, and that’s the most important by far — that’s the curation algorithm. This is the algorithm that determines what you see and what you don’t see on the site. And clearly, China’s been using the algorithm to create division in America to meddle in our elections to promote things like suicide and illicit drug use. This is really bad stuff.”
Chang went on to argue that the U.S. would theoretically have the right to seize TikTok outright. “We know that the Chinese have used it to steal data from Americans,” he observed. “That, by the way, is a violation of federal law, which means under federal forfeiture statutes, we could actually just seize TikTok without compensation. So I’m not exactly sure why we feel we need to negotiate with the Chinese. I think that if we’re going to ‘negotiate’ with them, we ought to be just telling them what the terms are and then telling them they’re either going to take it or leave it, and if they leave it, we’re going to expropriate it.”
At the same time, reports surfaced over the weekend that Xi Jinping’s communist regime is cracking down heavily on religious content on the internet within his own country. According to a report from Christian Daily International, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) National Religious Affairs Administration has instituted new restrictions that include a requirement that Christian clergy only use government-approved online platforms for religious education. The regulations stated that religious education and training can only be conducted “through registered religious organizations’ websites, applications, forums and platforms that have an ‘Internet Religious Information Services License.’”
As reported by Bitter Winter, the regulations further stipulate that “Personal social media accounts, livestreams, WeChat groups or informal forums are strictly off-limits for religious instruction. Self-promotion is banned, and clergy may not use religious identity to attract followers or traffic. Foreign entanglements are forbidden: no supporting or participating in ‘overseas religious infiltration.’”
The CCP rules also specifically target evangelizing to youth by forbidding “inducing beliefs” in minors through the internet, including bans on “organizing children to participate in religious education, training and camps.” The regime also prohibits “fundraising, selling religious merchandise, or monetizing religious activities online. AI evangelism is also off the table. Clergy may not use generative AI to produce or disseminate religious content.”
Violators of the new rules could face “administrative penalties, including suspension of religious credentials, closure of online accounts and criminal investigation.”
At the end of the day, Arielle Del Turco, FRC’s director of the Center for Religious Liberty, told The Washington Stand, “The Chinese Communist Party knows what we all know — that the youth are the future. By further cutting off young people’s access to religious content and teaching, the CCP is planning to weaken the church more and more over time,” she warned. “So much of our information sharing takes place over social media platforms. If Christians can’t organize a youth event or share a Bible verse online, that is a massive barrier to reaching young people.”
“As the CCP’s open assault on the gospel continues,” she stressed, “we can be in prayer for believers in China and for all Chinese people — that God’s message of love and salvation would reach them powerfully and overcome the attempt of the enemy to silence the truth.”
