Abstract

The vertiginous growth of the Chinese economy and its consolidation as the world’s second-largest economy threatens global hegemony of the United States in trade and influence. By employing a series of legal and economic constrictions, both countries currently wage a trade war to protect and expand their domestic economies simultaneously, trying to tilt the global balance of power in their favor. Besides disputes over the flow of people and capital, a new battlefront opens: The algorithmic frontier, in which states deliberate over the inflow of personal and private information across physical and national borders. The recent US decision to ban TikTok through HR 7521, a rapidly growing Chinese social network, nationally, will be analyzed within the context of the two nation’s protectionism regarding their data. The law and its surrounding environment will be examined under legal, socioeconomic, and geopolitical prisms, taking into account each measure and countermeasure that has led to this point. Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies were not used in any way to prepare, write, or complete essential authoring tasks in this manuscript.