New China Export Control Rules May Delay TikTok Deal By 30 Days

New China Export Control Rules May Delay TikTok Deal By 30 Days

At the end of last week, the Chinese authorities amended the existing export control rules. Now, software algorithms of a certain type belong to those assets, the transfer of which outside the PRC needs to be coordinated in a special order. This jeopardizes the timely execution of the deal with TikTok, which, at the request of the United States, must sell its local assets in a short time.

tiktok_02

Publications Reuters and Bloomberg quoted Chinese experts in the field of foreign trade who see a threat to increase in terms of matching the transaction TikTok at least 30 days. The algorithm used by this service for selecting the most in-demand content was developed in China, it is the key know-how of the platform, and now the PRC authorities want to control its transfer to American buyers of assets allocated from TikTok at the request of the US leadership.

The Chinese company ByteDance, which developed TikTok, will have to comply with the requirements of both US and Chinese laws, its representatives explained. How long will it take to analyze the situation, ByteDance does not undertake to say yet. The company may become hostage to the political confrontation between the United States and China since its interests in the actions of opponents are so far taken into account in the last turn.