The perception of the Tiktok platform as China’s sharp power instrument in US politics

Abstract

Public diplomacy can be defined as managing a country’s foreign policy objectives and protecting its national interests by establishing direct social relations and communication with the citizen or government of another country. Public diplomacy, which we know that each country has its own strategy, is handled from a different perspective in China as well. China, which has been identified with the concept of sharp power is confronted with the claims of the new rival of the USA. Recently, claims from the United States that China-based social media platform TikTok has been carrying out sharp power activities have come to the fore. TikTok is considered to be a major force for China as it has over one billion active users. However, there are debates as to whether China manipulates the peoples of other countries through this practice. Censorship and manipulation, the two main concepts of sharp power, are used in TikTok or does TikTok exist independently? The purpose of this article is to explore whether the TikTok platform, one of China's important public diplomacy tools, is perceived as a threat by American politicians. For this purpose, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s US Congress testimony were analyzed by content analysis method. As a result, it has been confirmed that American politicians perceive TikTok as a sharp power instrument of the Chinese Communist Party. It has been observed that concerns have been expressed about the concepts of censorship, manipulation, propaganda, control, and influence, which are the five elements of sharp power. It has been found that the TikTok platform is perceived as a propaganda device, a psychological warfare weapon, and not a public diplomacy tool or soft power element.