Timing really is everything. A week on from TikTok’s short-lived ban over fears of Chinese harvesting U.S. data, despite consistent denials from the platform and its parent that it’s doing anything of the sort, here comes another app that admits to doing exactly that. And if you still think TikTok is bad — this is so much worse.

A frenzy over an artificial intelligence chatbot made by Chinese tech startup DeepSeek upended stock markets Monday and is fueling debates over the economic and geopolitical competition between the U.