1. People outside doesn't understand how Chinese government works.
This CAID is a project by advertising association, yes it is state backed. But these associations in China are commercial only and looks out to commercial interests.
In western public opinion, "state-backed" has negative connotations and government is a necessary evil. But in Chinese political philosophy that is not the case. Government has a positive role. Government can unite groups, form common interest, work across conflicting interests to create a win-win situation for everyone. In China, in a lot of situations people actual seek leadership from the government to create standards or common approaches. A lot of the industrial policies documents people outside have a problem with are actually demanded by private parties, and government is just answering their demands.
In this case it looks like the industry is driven by commercial interests to develop this technical solution. If the Chinese government wants to impose this kind of tracking to track people's activities online, it will need to use its executive power. And that involves the following steps: 1. Chinese central government announces direction to create this kind of tracking system. 2. Departments in state counsel start draft 《管理条例》and releases it public solicitation 3. 《管理条例》goes into effect 4. national people's congress drafting and passing laws. All of these will involve public disclosure. But there is no sign of any of this from the government.
People can debate whether the tracking involved here is okay or not. But there is no sign here saying the government is designing this and mandating it in order to track people.
Also Apple could try to close the "loophole" used here. Maybe the Chinese advertising industry will get pissed and demand the government to do something. But I doubt any legal actions will be taken. First, legally Apple doesn't break any Chinese laws. Second, Chinese government needs to be law abiding and rule based to attract foreign investments, which is crucial to the economy.
2. This article is accusing Tiktok of implementing this. But this is a project under discussion within China, likely only to be used within China, and Bytedance's apps in China, like douyin. Tiktok and Douyin are separate apps, run by separate management. TikTok by TikTok US, while Bytedance China runs all Chinese related business. The parent Bytedance is incorporated in Cayman islands. Hence Chinese laws do not apply to the parent and TikTok US. TikTok US is ought to follow US laws, customs, expectations and values. Of course its fine to pressure TikTok and Bytedance to not implement this in China as well. But this article's tone is implying Chinese government controls these entities and trying to track people everywhere. That is simply not true. The government 1) is not pushing to do so 2) doesn't have the means to do it. Even if Chinese government is tries to force Bytedance to share tiktok data, Bytedance can refuse, what can it do? It could only arrest Bytedance management or fine the company. Is there any of that happening? I am seeing a lot of anti-china ccp videos on TikTok. Just because the company is founded by a Chinese person doesn't mean it will be political and abide by the rules in china.