The free market is a two way thing. What, you wanna allow a totalitarian regime to have it's companies operating in your soil while expanding their influence?

This situation should've been stopped a while ago, China banned every company they wanted while the others let them operate everywhere according to the free market rules.

Free market does not need to be a two way thing to function. If the Chinese have to spend their money on non-US goods, those earning thw profits will be more inclined to spend their money on US goods.

Exports is what you pay for your imports. It's better for US citizens to be able to buy Chinese products even if Chinese citizens can't buy us products. They can pay for it by exporting to other countries from which China buys.

Meanwhile, when smaller countries (for example post communist ones) try to protect like that, all Americans were yelling "free market, free market, gotta open it completely and absolutely for the good of all!"

>I strongly hope that your strange "tit-for-tat" doesn't extend to basic rights of people and businesses on US soil. US is supposed to be better than that, remember?

I think the issue here is that it's a foreign owned business. I know tit-for-tat might be happening in the eyes of US law makers, but many of the constitutional protections we afford citizens are only extended as a convenience to non-citizens - a convenience usually rooted in positive trade relationships.

There's no "basic right" of foreign businesses to do business in the United States.

What about the right of citizens to install whatever software they want on their phones?

They never had that. e.g. Apple.

To be more specific, it would be Apple preventing you from doing it in this case.

If you had a phone that let you install software on it of your choosing then you could install whatever you want, regardless of who Apple isn't allowed to do business with. They made themselves a chokepoint, so now they're a chokepoint.

The internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around... no, your phone's only route is through the one corporation.

You're free to jailbreak your phone if you want to exercise that right. And Apple is free to deny you updates and service if you do that.

How so? Americans have the right to trade with foreign companies. Apple should have the right to trade with foreign companies, in this case, TikTok.

US restrictions on foreign trade are restrictions on Americans.

>Americans have the right to trade with foreign companies

Err, foreign affairs (and thus commerce) has always been something regulated by the US government - something reserved for the president unless the legislative explicitly declares otherwise. Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-2/sec...

Do you know any constitutional clause or SCOTUS case suggesting otherwise?

There is no right to trade with foreign companies. Try doing business with a North Korean company and see how that goes for you.

Americans have no such right — the US government has the authority to impose economic sanctions on foreign governments that explicitly prohibit doing business with their companies.

> basic rights of people and businesses

Expand on these basic rights that are violated if TikTok is banned. And since when do foreign businesses have basic rights in US or any other democracy?

What basic rights are you worried about?

> I strongly hope that your strange "tit-for-tat" doesn't extend to basic rights of people and businesses on US soil.

Your enemy brakes rules to gain advantage, why wouldn't you.

I for long thought of this as a weakness in America.

Thousands of children of CPC's top leadership live, and study in USA, including children of Xi, Li, and Lin.

Your solution to solve your problem with China overnight was pretty much lying under your nose.

Think, not a single government employee in China can legally afford to pay for their children tuition in Harvard (which people in China jokingly call "the new Central Party School.") The salary of a government employee in China is legally capped at around CNY 32000. There is no way in hell even Chinese government ministers can pay for their children lavish lifestyles in the West from legit income.

> Your enemy brakes rules to gain advantage, why wouldn't you.

Probably because if your "enemy" (interesting that this wording started to pop up in relation to China a lot) is a totalitarian state which abuses their people... you don't want to follow their rules and societal structure.

At least that's my takeaway as an Eastern European with a bit of experience of such regimes.

Well, take a look on Mr Obama, and what legal trickery he went through to drone his own citizen (Awlaki.) Now, America can drone own citizens, but can't do this?