It is impossible to have a practical discussion on these issues when one side unironically believes China is a Mordor-esque land ruled by comic book villains. Totally misinformed.
Anyways, the level of influence is similar. If the Washington wants my private data from Google, they will get it. No amount of wishful thinking and handwaving about "well Google could say no, but bytedance will definitely comply because reasons" will change that.
The Chinese government does, in fact, use Chinese companies to steal IP from other countries, while the US does not and cannot.
Irrelevant chaff that you have attempted to throw up: "would be as pedantic about verifying claims" "winning internet arguments" "one side unironically believes China is a Mordor-esque land ruled by comic book villains" (yeah no) "If the Washington wants my private data from Google, they will get it" (also no)
> If the Washington wants my private data from Google, they will get it
> the level of influence is similar
As someone who works with the US government, I can verify that both of these statements are factually false. (and, again, still a diversion from the actual topic under discussion which is governments compelling companies to engage in IP theft)
It is non-trivial (in the legal sense) for the US government to get the data of a single US person, and it certainly cannot do it en-masse, nor force companies to hand over all of their data unencrypted, both of which are things that the CCP can (and does) do. Therefore, the levels of influence are not similar. End of argument.
Note the "similar".
You then amended your point to "virtually all large (tech) companies are influenced by governments", which is completely different than similar levels of influence.
Nobody cares that governments have some level of influence over companies - that's a feature, in fact, because some regulation is necessary for markets to work - the issue under hand is exclusively whether the level of control is excessive. (and, in this specific thread, whether "A Chinese company stealing IP" is comparable to "China stealing IP")
That's moving the goalposts.
(the answer to that last question is "yes" - the Chinese government does, in fact, use Chinese companies to steal IP from other countries (including, but not limited to, the US, Japan, and parts of the EU), while the US does not)