Illustration: Tang Tengfei/Global Times

As the Biden administration blatantly threatens to ban TikTok if its Chinese owners don't divest their stake in the popular video app, a group of Silicon Valley executives and Washington lawmakers are banding together forming an anti-China alliance called "Hill & Valley Forum." The group quietly plans to host a dinner on Wednesday to mobilize against China's involvement in the US tech industry ahead of TikTok's testimony before Congress, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

In addition to planning to speak about its "concerns about China" at the coming dinner, the group will also prepare more attack lines for Congress to question TikTok during Thursday's testimony, according to Jacob Helberg, a former Google policy adviser leading the effort to create the anti-China group. He has been meeting with lawmakers in Congress every couple of weeks to urge them to ban TikTok, according to the report.

It is no secret that some radical anti-China politicians in Washington are hysterical and irrational on the issue of technological competition with China. In the face of the rise of Chinese technology companies, some Silicon Valley executives have long spoken with a sense of resentment about China. Nevertheless, openly discussing how to destroy or rob the success of a legally operating Chinese internet technology company is still outrageous and worrying.

First and foremost, there is no evidence at all supporting the US government to ban or rob such a globally successful app on national security grounds. The US government's forced sale of TikTok's operations is baseless and a hegemonic act. Over the past three years, the US has conducted thoroughly scrutiny on the Chinese company and got nothing.

Moreover, to soothe the "national security concerns" of the US, TikTok has committed to spend $1.5 billion on a plan known as "Project Texas," inviting third parties to monitor, review and verify data security. It can be said that TikTok has established a global benchmark for securing data security.

The founding of the "Hill &Valley" anti-China alliance indicates that no matter how much TikTok has tried, radical China hawks in Washington won't quit the plan to ban or strangle it. The relentless attacks on TikTok from the anti-China group only expose its hooligan nature much clearer.

American politicians and some interest groups have long been collaborating to contain Chinese tech companies. However, these interest groups do not represent the entire US business community. 

It should be noted that these so-called anti-China political-business alliances like "Hill & Valley Forum" have no specific plan to promote the development of American tech companies to win the technological competition. Instead, they only resent Chinese companies leading competitiveness and focus on excluding Chinese companies from the marketplace.

These so-called Washington elites and Silicon Valley consultants are best at advocating and exaggerating "decoupling" and technology war. As many companies in the US technology industry had experienced sharp drop in stock prices at the end of last year and layoff waves, such an irrational approach can only further escalate the risks faced by US technology companies and force China to step up efforts to enhance its ability to independently innovate in science and technology.

From Huawei to TikTok, the fundamental motive of the US' seemingly endless crackdown on and blockade of Chinese companies is to allow US companies to monopolize advanced digital technologies and sustain their leading positions in the industry. But just as the suppression of Huawei cannot help US communication sector to catch up in the 5G field, the crackdown on TikTok by the US will not help American social media behemoths such as Meta to overtake TikTok in core technology areas such as algorithms.

The "Hill & Valley" anti-China alliance's touting of hysterical "decoupling" and vicious competition can only harm others and the US itself, but to expand cooperation while allowing proper competition with Chinese companies will benefit the US' technology field and Silicon Valley companies. 

If the US government really blocks TikTok on the grounds of so-called national security, it will be tantamount to going against the trend of technological and economic development, and it will eventually backfire on its own technology sector. 

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn