I’ve overused the Toyota analogy. In this case it’s literal.
Until now Japan and China have followed diametrically opposite methods to take over US industries. Neither was aggressive. In both cases our “own” industries happily SURRENDERED the field to the foreign competitor without a fight. Our industries HATE to make things and employ people. They only want to enrich Larry Fink and evade taxes.
Japan started much earlier in the 50s. Our electronics companies had grown TBTF, and were quickly moving away from consumer products into safe riskless government contracts. Raytheon was just another maker of tubes and parts until it got Connected. Now Raytheon runs wars and spy systems. No politician can afford to offend it.
Japan started making transistor radios, then expanded into tape players and TVs and video games. Japan always used its own names, with only a few rebrands. Panasonic and Sony and Nintendo competed honestly. They became famous for QUALITY, not for low price.
Toyota and Datsun followed the same path ten years later. US carmakers had grown TBTF, listening to the shareholders and unions, ignoring the customers. They made increasingly awful and crappy cars. Toyota and Datsun moved in slowly and carefully, competing honestly, always providing the BEST car or truck in each category, and keeping their own names. People who sampled the product instantly realized it was BETTER than anything made locally, and recognized the Toyota brand as the BEST.
China started later with a totally opposite approach. China competed solely on price, never dealt with customers and never used its own names. Our corporations hungrily seized on Chinese offers to eliminate American jobs and factories. Heaven! Spend almost nothing on unthinkable physical reality, leave it all for Share Value! Endless Christmas! China then cheated them by stealing the patents and techniques and developing its own industries. Our corporations deserved their fate, but we didn’t deserve what our corporations did to us.
All of our electronic crap is now made in China, but there are NO famous Chinese brands**. It’s all disguised as “American” brands, and it takes jobs from Americans.
= = = = =
Tiktok switches to the Japanese method. It’s a unique name, not disguised. It moved into the field of entertainment and social media where Google and Apple have become TBTF war and surveillance contractors exactly like Raytheon. It competes honestly, offering the BEST experience for its users.
Aside from the branding, Tiktok fits perfectly into China’s colonial methods in Africa. China never imposes its own culture. China is PURELY CAPITALIST, helping local farmers and miners to develop their businesses, using local labor. China gets the food or minerals, and the local businesses grow and prosper.
Tiktok does the same. It helps influencers in the 3rd world of Africa and the 4th world of USA to grow their own businesses.
= = = = =
** Later: I guess there are a few exceptions in recent years. As I was writing the above on my LENOVO computer, I was thinking about the need to eventually transfer to my new LENOVO computer, which I bought because I liked the quality of my current LENOVO computer. There’s no point in pretending to Buy American because there aren’t any American computers at all, let alone low-quality American computers. The only choice is between sneakiness and honesty.
Polistra's Mill 