While a certain extent of it is just paranoia, there's also the fact that China as a nation has a long standing arrogance about how it views others that the Xi regime seems a little too eager to return to.

A rather infamous incident involving the guy who basically is China's founding father and great liberator revolved around him being kidnapped by Qing agents in London, because the imperial throne had long presumed that their authority was absolute everywhere, and saw zero reason why they should consider not arresting someone on another country's soil.

I bring this incident up because it's what the legitimate security concern actually revolves around, China has begun dispatching "police agents" to their embassies who are basically there to kidnap and intimidate chinese nationals who aren't acting "chinese enough", and in extreme cases drag them back to beijing by their hair.

This obviously extends to dissidents who foolishly presumed they could escape Beijing's wrath by not living in China, and to anyone seen as aiding and abetting them who aren't high profile enough to draw attention if they get roughed up or even kidnapped themselves.

American privacy invaders are looking at you, chinese privacy invaders are parasitically attaching themselves into your eye sockets so they can look at everyone you're looking at, and use you as an unwitting informant on anyone they're tracking.

It's like that bug that eats and then replaces fishes' tongues, only if the bug was big brother and you were hyptnotized into staring at some shitty minecraft parkour while it eats your eyeball out and plugs itself into your optic nerve.

TikTok of course advertises this as a fun feature that encourages group viewing by presenting content based on your interests and also the interests of those around you "as a conversation starter."