Comment by TulliusCicero

I can get to the main Xinhua news website -- the Chinese one, not some US-specific page -- easily enough as an American. You definitely can't do the equivalent from within China, you can't get to Voice of America, or the New York Times, or similar sites.

That's the difference. It's not about operating as a business within the country, it's about banning access to even the foreign version of the site or app.

China commonly bans Western websites and apps, even ones that have never operated or attempted to operate as businesses within China. The US doing the same is relatively rare, situations like this TikTok ban are very uncommon.