The TikTok China decision: A de facto ban on international data transfers?

The DPC's TikTok decision is not that surprising if you understand the law, but it's actually a pretty huge deal to see this play out in reality. Are most international data transfers de facto illegal?TikTok enabled remote access to EEA users' personal data in China, purportedly for purposes like maintenance and user support.The DPC said: Remote access is a transfer. Not really surprising based on the post-Schrems II EDPB recommendations.TikTok encrypted the data in transit and at rest and put various other technical and contractual safeguards in place.The DPC said: These measures mean nothing if the Chinese government can undo them. Also not surprising; that was the whole point of Schrems II.TikTok admitted that Chinese law was not "essentially equivalent" to the EU's, but argued that because the data was STORED on EEA servers, the Chinese government could not touch it.The DPC said: Wrong. When the data is accessed on a Chinese employee's laptop, it's *in China*. The Chinese government can access it. That seems like common sense.TikTok said the Chinese government had never requested access to the EEA user data and was very unlikely to ever do so.The DPC said: Irrelevant. There is no "risk-based approach". Just because you say you've never received a request, that doesn't mean you actually haven't, or won't in future.—So from the DPC's perspective, each part of its decision makes sense based on previous EDPB recommendations and case law.But let's put TikTok to one side. What's the cumulative, logical-consequence effect of these findings?If there's no way any employee in China can even *look at* EEA-originating personal data, then transfers to China are effectively illegal.And whose rule-of-law standards *are* "essentially equivalent" to the EU's? If there's no risk-based approach, is the threshold actually impossibly high?India? Singapore? Australia? *Any* country without an adequacy decision?If we flip a switch and automatically applied this decision universally—FULL compliance with the EDPB's interpretation of Schrems II overnight—what happens to the global economy?Whatever your view on TikTok and the Chinese Communist Party, it's worth thinking this one through.