TikTok is not a social media company, it’s a weapon of foreign influence and a key part of China’s economic war against us.

Lest there be any doubt.

Chinese manufacturers are flooding TikTok and other social media apps with direct appeals to American shoppers, urging people to buy luxury items straight from their factories. And amid the threats of sky-high tariffs on Chinese exports, Americans seem to be all in.

American influencers have embraced the videos, promoting the factories and driving downloads of Chinese shopping apps like DHGate and Taobao as a way for shoppers to save money if the price of goods skyrockets under President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports. DHGate was among the 10 most downloaded apps in Apple’s and Google’s app stores last week.

Many of the posts also seem to have elicited Americans’ sympathy for China in comments, such as “Trump bullied the wrong country” and “China won this war.”

Assume that none of this is organic or authentic, but it is a test of TikTok as an engine of economic warfare.

And as such it’s working quite well.

Before TikTok, Chinese sellers had to spend fortunes targeting Americans through Facebook, YouTube, Amazon and other American platforms. Now they can directly target Americans through TikTok and push them to download Chinese shopping apps while entirely cutting out any American component except for the delivery truck drivers.

Allowing TikTok to operate is economic suicide no matter how many lobbyists have been paid off to push China’s agenda while pretending that it’s good for America.