I think it's hugely disingenuous, to the point of bad faith, to pretend there's not a massive difference between the internet in the U.S. and in China.
Exactly. This isn't a general comparison of china to the US. It's a specific comparison of how bad data collection practices and the only (IMO) sane conclusion is that it's all quite terrible. One is not disconnected to the other either. The reason tiktok can collect all this data is precedents and norms established by google and FB.