If such fears were officials' genuine motivation, one could hope that broader data-privacy regulation might follow

This is what blows it out of the water for me. When the TikTok ban was first floated a few years ago, I liked the sound of legislation to protect user data. But that's not what it's about; where's the new regulations? The new protections? What consequences will Twitter and Facebook and Instagram face? No where, no where, none, none, none. It's not about protecting Americans from the CCP, it's about stopping the CCP from getting in on their game