The only time the United States House of Representatives moves so quickly is when it needs to act to keep the government open, or when it declares war. This week, the House declared war on China by seeking to put TikTok out of business in the US.

ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, was shocked, reportedly believing that when President Joe Biden opened his TikTok account in time for the Super Bowl, the threats that had dogged the company for years were finally in abeyance.

Devotees of TikTok protest the bill outside the Capitol in Washington.Credit: AP

They were wrong.

In August 2020, the then president, Donald Trump, fighting for his political life against Biden, was reeling from the COVID pandemic – which he blamed on China – and prosecuting his trade war with Beijing. He invoked emergency economic powers to issue an executive order placing sanctions on TikTok, banning the app, and demanding that China sell the company to American interests.

TikTok neutered the emergency declaration in the courts, but the issues did not go away.

A year ago, three attacks on TikTok were launched in Washington. When they assumed power in the House of Representatives, the Republicans turbocharged their hostility to China, establishing a select committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Everyone got the message. The Justice Department announced a criminal investigation into TikTok’s monitoring of US journalists. The House energy and commerce committee savaged TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in a five-hour hearing. The committee’s Republican chair, Cathy Rodgers, said: “TikTok has repeatedly chosen the path for more control, more surveillance and more manipulation. Your platform should be banned.”

Last week, the two committees introduced their targeted legislation that required a forced sale of TikTok to American interests within six months and, if that did not occur, TikTok would be banned from the US. The energy and commerce committee, with its reputation for powerful legislation and intense partisanship, approved the bill with stunning unanimity, 50-0.

There were several other drivers of this legislation. The director of national intelligence issued a threat assessment report that China had targeted both Republican and Democratic candidates in the 2022 midterm elections.