Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval of a deal that could keep TikTok alive in the U.S., China has remained conspicuously quiet. During the signing of an executive order on the deal, Trump said that he had “gotten the go ahead” from Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, no representatives from ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, were present at the signing, and the company has not issued a public statement. According to the order, this would satisfy the requirements of a national security law that requires ByteDance to divest from TikTok’s U.S. operations or face an effective ban. This quiet struggle between two superpowers over a single app demonstrates how deeply intertwined technology, commerce, and national security have become in the 21st century.