You trust them to do what?

Not do this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Ko...

A healthy middle-class in America, with immediate needs like healthcare and housing met, is China's best interests as that means Americans have more money to spend on consumer goods.

The Koch Brothers want to dismantle all the organs of state they don't approve of.

How about these? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23480918, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23506580.

And the FBI backdoored skype to silently shut off encryption, back when it was truly peer-to-peer.

China never did that to me.

So you think fair elections are less important than your own security? You may have a problem after your country turns authoritarian, even if your computer is secure.

We don't have "fair" elections after Citizen's United.

We don't have "fair" elections after the FCC scrapped the Fairness Doctrine in the 80s under Regan.

We don't have "fair" elections for the president since we don't directly elect the president.

The scenario where china somehow designs a dastardly TikTok video that convinces---I'm sorry "manipulates"---young people to vote en mass in a way that somehow advances the national interests of China and against their own material concerns is remote. But, I'm not sure how that's worse than any other garden variety Super PAC, or billionaire debutante like Mike Bloomberg or Howard Schultz.

Sure, your elections have a lot of problems. Don't you think you should fight that and not introduce more problems, "because it's already bad"?

> The scenario where china ... "manipulates" ... young people to vote en mass in a way that somehow advances the national interests of China is remote

Didn't it already happen with Russia affecting the elections via Facebook?

They, allegedly, bought ads like anyone else would have. Did that ~$100k ad buy stop Hillary from campaigning in the Mid West and visiting Wisconsin?