China’s Insatiable Hunger for Espionage and the ‘Thousand Grains of Sand’ Tack

TikTok has everyone swept up in its short-form video wave, but the platform has a dark side. Bytedance, the company behind the viral sensation, has been exposed yet again as being an espionage front for the Chinese government. However, this isn’t news to anyone, as China has made spy work an integral part of its geopolitical policy. While many countries world over have just begun to wisen up to China’s insatiable hunger for sensitive information, India set a precedent by cutting off Chinese surveillance efforts at the beginning of 2020. Many panned the move vehemently, calling it anti-Chinese, however, this pre-emptive move may have helped preserve the privacy of millions of Indian citizens.  The Chinese government not only collects data through its ‘private’ companies,