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BEIJING opposes a forced sale of TikTok’s operations in the United States by its Chinese owner ByteDance, and would prefer that the short video app be shut down in the United States, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday.
ByteDance has been in talks to sell the US TikTok business to potential buyers, including Microsoft and Oracle, since US President Donald Trump threatened last month to ban the service if it did not sell. .
Trump has given ByteDance a mid-September deadline to finalize a deal.
However, Chinese officials believe that a forced sale would make both ByteDance and China appear weak under pressure from Washington, said the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.
ByteDance said in a statement to Reuters that the Chinese government had never suggested to it that it should shut down TikTok in the United States or any other market.
Two of the sources said China was willing to use the revisions it made to a list of technology exports on August 28 to delay any deals reached by ByteDance, if necessary.
The Information Office of China’s State Council and its foreign and trade ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent after hours.
When asked about Trump and TikTok on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular news conference that the United States was abusing the concept of national security and urged him to stop oppressing the foreign companies.
Clash between powers
Reuters has reported that potential TikTok buyers were discussing four ways to structure a ByteDance acquisition.
Within these, ByteDance could still go ahead with the sale of TikTok assets in the US without the approval of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce by selling them without key algorithms.
ByteDance and its founder Zhang Yiming have been caught in a confrontation between the two major powers in the world.
Last month, Trump issued two executive orders requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok’s assets in the US or face ban in the country, where the app is very popular with teens.
US officials have criticized the app’s security and privacy, suggesting that user data could be shared with Beijing. TikTok has said that it will not comply with any requests to share user data with Chinese authorities.
Beijing has said it strongly opposes Trump’s executive orders and moved on Aug. 28 to give a voice in the process, reviewing a list of technologies that will need approval from the Chinese government before being exported. Experts said that TikTok’s recommendation algorithm would be included in this list.
Chinese regulators said last week that the rules were not targeted at specific companies, but they reaffirmed their right to enforce them. – Reuters
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