It is possible to be a hypocrite and right though. You're also missing some nuance however as the bill would force the sale of TikTok while China doesn't force the sale of Instagram, it just blocks it.
That still doesn't explain the "obviously not" and only shows you dislike to discuss anything and only want people to agree with you.
You might be having a rough day or maybe something is bothering you and I genuinely hope everything works out for you. It's just really hard to have genuine conversations with you if you refuse to elaborate and instead expect others to read your thoughts.
"Obviously not" refers to your question about whether being a hypocrite is irrelevant. It's obviously not irrelevant. You know this; the question wasn't even sincere. You're just being antagonistic for antagonism's sake. Hence your faux concern about whether I'm having a bad day, etc. You're not even trying to have a discussion; you're looking for a fight.
The core problem is that the reason of removal is not based on fact, but just plain racism. They're not even trying to hide it either. If you've been paying attention to the intelligence community, they've been trying to drum up a justification for a war with China for awhile now.
Well the question isn't about taking China seriously, but admitting that China was right in the first place. US's argument is that China can spread disinformation on Tik Tok, which is exactly what China was saying about Facebook etc... So, China, which doesn't have freedom of speech banned those sites for promoting foreign interests. US is now trying to do exactly the same to Tik Tok.
IF you accept USA's argument here, then you implicitly accept China's argument since they're the same argument. So, again, it doesn't matter what China says, what matters is what you just said:
It’s kind of hard to take their criticism seriously when western sites and apps like the BBC or Instagram are blocked in China.
So there by admitting, China was right, countries SHOULD block foreign influence.