Arbitrage of the TikTok ban: The conundrum of the U.S.-China data war

This research article examines the TikTok ban as a defining case in the U.S.-China data war, where national security concerns, data governance, digital sovereignty, and freedom of expression collide. It analyses the legal and geopolitical tensions surrounding cross-border dataflows, Chinese data law, U.S. national security policy, and cognitive warfare, and explores how these forces reshape the future of global data governance.