Within hours of taking the oath of office on Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order postponing a ban on the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok. The president's directive extends the enforcement deadline of a law passed by Congress and signed by his predecessor that requires the app's parent company, ByteDance, to find an American buyer or face shutdown in the U.S. TikTok temporarily went dark over the weekend ahead of the initial Jan. 19 deadline.

The sudden about-face is perplexing. President Trump was the first to attempt to require a TikTok sale over four years ago, citing national security interests and free trade concerns. President Trump has been busy in the past few months setting up a new government, so it is understandable if he doesn't question some of the businessmen around him about what, if any, benefits they have received from intense lobbying and enormous spending by the Chinese communist-controlled ByteDance. This is the time for President Trump to follow his instincts about the threat that China poses to America.

For years warning lights have been buzzing around TikTok. The foreign-owned app, which has some 170 million U.S. users, collects huge swaths of personal data, including banking and billing information, user activity on other websites and apps, and even biometric identifiers, like faceprints and voiceprints. And because of the Chinese Communist Party's ubiquitous control of its indigenous companies, there's good reason to believe that information could be weaponized by our biggest adversary.

The CCP has been clear about its intention to unseat the United States as the world's leading economic and military power. Internet surveillance and data collection are key components of its plan, which the Chinese government mines to "equip its government agencies, military and police with information on foreign targets."

China's national military-civil fusion policy compels Chinese companies to abet the country's surveillance efforts, and already CCP proxies have successfully implemented cyber-attacks on U.S. networks. In 2017, Chinese military-backed hackers carried out an attack on Equifax, which resulted in the largest theft of Americans' personal information, and Chinese state-sponsored aggressors continue to wage an "active and persistent" assault that gained access to even President Trump's and Vice President JD Vance's personal calls and text messages.

While signing the executive order Monday, President Trump suggested TikTok is primarily a platform for "young kids," and if "China is going to get information about young kids out of it, to be honest, I think we have bigger problems." He also indicated he would be open to ByteDance selling off only half of the app to a U.S. buyer to allow it to continue to operate. Both are dangerous grounds.

While TikTok may be popular with younger users, there are millions of U.S. adults that use it as well. And whether the app (and, by extension, the Chinese government and military) gets data from young people or adults, that information can be equally dangerous. The CCP can exploit information on teenagers and their families as easily as it can that culled from adults.

Likewise, while requiring that TikTok be at least half U.S.-owned may impose guiderails to curb China's data collection, it is analogous to damming half the river. The portion of the company that remains under Chinese ownership would undoubtedly find a way to continue to syphon data to the CCP, and it would leave a blind spot for state-sponsored actors to keep ajar backdoors that could be used against us.

There's also the question of parity. China prohibits many U.S. companies from conducting business on its soil, including tech giants like X, Facebook and Google. The CCP's "Great Firewall" prevents citizens from accessing free and fair news to U.S. news sites. Why allow one of China's national darlings to continue operating here — especially knowing the threat it poses — when it's not reciprocated? Why give them a free pass to continue pilfering Americans' data?

President Trump has demonstrated he isn't afraid to draw a hardline on China, which is exactly the kind of firm leadership the U.S. needs to maintain a competitive advantage over our greatest adversary. It seems like a no-brainer that President Trump would follow through on a TikTok ban short of a total sale — a ban that he first proposed, that Congress authorized with broad bipartisan support, and that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld.

I trust Mr. Trump's executive order is part of a longer play to restore teeth to U.S.-China policy after four years of former President Joe Biden's kowtowing. But it's critical the president not get caught up in a protracted cat-and-mouse game, lest the U.S. come out on the losing end.

Ken Buck served in the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2024 representing Colorado's 4th congressional district. To find out more about Ken Buck and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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