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The U.S. Government Could Have Handled the TikTok matter in a Much Simpler and Better Way

Share a simple and effective tactic I learned in office politics.

Zhimin Zhan
6 min readJan 17, 2025

Substack version of this article.

Update (2025–01–20): Elon Musk’s new tweet, posted two days after this article, aligns with the views expressed in it.

Source: Elon Musk’s tweet (2025–01–20)

As the date of the “TikTok ban if not selling” is approaching, TikTok news dominates headlines. A recent one is that TikTok is planning to take its 100M+ users hostage to thread “immediate shutdown.”

Source: https://www.instagram.com/daygomob_/p/DE3eFaFSjSb/?img_index=1

This article does not take sides in the TikTok dispute, rather I share some insights I learned dealing with office politics. I think the U.S. government handled this TikTok matter poorly:

  1. Neglect the big picture.
  2. Respond slowly, and too late.
  3. Play the game passively.
  4. A simple yet much better tactic: Play the ball back
  5. The most important tactic I learned in office environments: Let Others Prove.

1. Neglect the big picture

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Zhimin Zhan
Zhimin Zhan

Written by Zhimin Zhan

Test automation & CT coach, author, speaker and award-winning software developer. Help teams succeed with Agile/DevOps by implementing real Continuous Testing.

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