Is that really true? I am pretty sure that as long as the data is in China and your tech doesn't connect to other countries you are free to use US tech to do business in China. I think this is how Google and Uber did it when they operated in China, they used the same code but had different infra.

Which is why this seems quite strange to me because TikTok China content doesn't show up on the western TikTok because they are completely separate.