China would prefer to close the American TikTok business, rather than sell it to the US
Official Beijing opposed the sale of US assets of the TikTok short video service, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. The government would prefer to close the service in the United States rather than hand it over to the Americans, CNBC news agency reported, citing its sources.
Last month, US President Donald Trump issued a decree according to which TikTok should be banned in the country if none of the American companies can acquire it by mid-September this year. Since that time, ByteDance has begun active negotiations with potential buyers, including companies such as Microsoft and Oracle.
But as pointed out by CNBC, the Chinese government believes that the forced sale of TikTok will show the weakness of ByteDance in particular and China in general in the face of pressure from Washington. In a statement to Reuters, the Chinese company told Reuters that it itself never offered to sell TikTok’s assets in the United States or any other country. Moreover, according to two CNBC sources, the Chinese government is ready, if necessary, to retaliate against the United States, in order to postpone any deals involving ByteDance and the American side.
At the end of August, China announced that it strongly opposed Trump’s orders. As one of the countermeasures, the government decided to prepare a list of technologies, services, and services that may fall under the export ban. According to some sources, the recommendation algorithm used in the TikTok app made it to this list.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, speaking to the press on Friday, noted that the US is blatantly exploiting the concept of national security and urged them to stop harassing foreign companies.
