Opening Huawei's and TikTok's securitization black box: how context, audience, and agency affect securitization success

Abstract

Huawei and TikTok have emerged as two main targets of the United States’ (US’) securitization of Chinese technology companies. However, the effectiveness of their securitization differs: Huawei was more successful compared to TikTok. This dissertation investigates this puzzling phenomenon using Thierry Balzacq’s Three Faces of Securitization framework, which highlights the importance of context, audience, and agency in a securitization outcome. Additionally, this dissertation also seeks to assess the effectiveness of Balzacq’s framework in the two empirical cases.

The securitization of Huawei (5G) in the US was more successful than of TikTok because the securitizing actor and audiences were able to reach a strong intersubjective understanding of Huawei threat, which mandated and legitimised the US to ban Huawei’s 5G equipment. This is particularly influenced by the critical timing of securitization of US-China technological competition and semantic repertoire of security around Huawei’s links to the Chinese military and Chinese cyber hacking. On the other hand, the securitization of TikTok was more contested because there was a lack of intersubjective agreement between the securitizing actor and the audience, especially the public. Despite being securitized during the same critical timing of US-China technological rivalry, there was a lack of historical development of data privacy that shaped the semantic repertoire of security.

Balzacq’s framework provides a nuanced and effective lens in making sense of different securitization outcomes. However, there are a few limitations. On context, it highlights the importance of critical timing over semantic repertoire, when the TikTok case revealed they are just as important. It is also more effective to explain securitization of public issues like TikTok, rather than more institutional issues like Huawei, due to the focus on public audience acceptance. On agency, it focuses on the power position of securitizing actor, when dynamics of securitization are relational with the audience.