Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans

A Glock switch, also known as an auto sear switch, is a small device that can illegally convert a semi-automatic Glock pistol into a fully automatic weapon, allowing it to fire continuously with a single pull of the trigger. These devices are highly regulated or banned in many countries due to the significant risk they pose by dramatically increasing a firearm’s lethality. In Blood Money, Schweizer claims that China is commercializing the device on websites that are specifically advertised for US citizens, in order to turn American cities into “war zones.” These claims are not substantiated, as the involvement of Chinese authorities in the commercialization of auto sear switches has not been proven, while the US is a world leader in gun violence, apart from the use of auto sear switches.

TikTok tics is a phenomenon that has been coined by researchers following the COVID-19 pandemic, when an increased use of social media resulted in some groups of (mostly female) teenagers exhibiting a higher incidence of tics. The subjects were found to model tic-like behavior exhibited in short clips on the social media platform, TikTok. The behavior has slowly been decreasing in recent years. In Blood Money, Schweizer uses the term TikTok tics to argue that China is waging a cognitive assault on the US’s youth population, underscoring his thematic engagement with The Erosion of American Values Through Foreign Interference.