> It is unequal and unfair and anticompetitive for China to ban hundreds of US based websites I keep seeing this claim posted, and I feel the need to add in so

> It is unequal and unfair and anticompetitive for China to ban hundreds of US based websites I keep seeing this claim posted, and I feel the need to add in some relevant history about why most of the companies on that list aren't doing business in China (tldr; Americans don't want to allow American companies to comply with Chinese laws). Between the mid and late aughts Google, Facebook, and Twitter were all operating in China. Around this time the Chinese government got very serious about content filtering and imposed new restrictions on what could be shown/uploaded. There was a very strong backlash from the US side that American companies might be helping to build the Great Firewall. Many Americans were outraged and US politicians warned the companies not to build infrastructure that could be used for censorship. So the American companies acquiesced and either left the market or were banned (Twitter). Reciprocity in trade is important, but it has to be viewed within the context of national laws. American companies had their hands tied and couldn't comply with Chinese law which is why they don't operate anymore. TikTok has so far complied with American laws and spent something on the order of $1 billion USD for a data center in Texas whose only buinsess value was to placate the American government. If enough Americans and lawmakers decide that it's ok for Facebook to build content filters and take down speech critical of the government then there might still be a future for Facebook in China.