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SHANGHAI: An agreement China’s ByteDance has reached with Oracle and Walmart on the future of its video streaming app TikTok is unlikely to receive approval from the Chinese government, the state-run Global Times newspaper said in an editorial.
ByteDance has said it will create a US subsidiary, TikTok Global, which will be partially owned by Oracle and Walmart, which in turn said that TikTok Global’s board would be made up mostly of Americans, to pacify the US president’s administration. Donald Trump, who had planned to ban TikTok for security reasons.
“It is clear that these articles (terms) broadly portray Washington’s bullying style and hooligan logic. They harm China’s national security, interests and dignity,” the English version of the editorial published late Monday said. It was also published in the Chinese newspaper. edition.
The unidentified author objected to the requirement that four of the five TikTok Global board positions be held by Americans and only one be reserved for a Chinese national, as well as the inclusion of a state-approved “director of national security.” United.
READ: ByteDance, Oracle Disagree on TikTok Agreement Terms
It also denounced the requirement that ByteDance disclose the source code of TikTok to Oracle as part of the latter’s stake purchase, as well as the separate management of TikTok from the Chinese equivalent Douyin.
“As TikTok and Douyin should have the same source code, this means that the United States can learn about Douyin’s operations,” the editorial continued.
“If the reorganization of TikTok under US manipulation becomes a model, it means that once any successful Chinese company expands its business to the US and becomes competitive, it will be attacked by the US and turned into a company controlled by United States through deception and coercion. Which ultimately serves only the interests of the United States, “wrote the author.
The Global Times is a tabloid published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party of China, but it does not speak on behalf of the party and the government unlike its parent publication.
Over the weekend, ByteDance and Oracle announced that they had reached an agreement that would fulfill Trump’s request to sell TikTok to a US buyer or face closure in the United States.
READ: Trump will ‘cut’ TikTok if deal can’t be salvaged
However, both parties have framed the agreement differently in public statements.
ByteDance has said that TikTok Global will be its subsidiary of which it will own 80 percent.
Oracle has said that ownership of ByteDance would be distributed to ByteDance investors, many of whom are based in the United States, and that the Beijing-based firm itself would have no stake in TikTok Global.
The deal requires the approval of both Beijing and Washington regulators.
