Image copyright
fake pictures
TikTok’s plan to base its international headquarters in the United Kingdom has been questioned following pressure from Washington on the future of the Chinese company in the United States.
ByteDance, owner of the video-sharing app, has had conversations with the government based on its London headquarters.
But the United States is considering banning the TikTok, and can only allow it to continue operating if it separates from China and becomes an American company.
“We remain fully committed to investing in London,” said a ByteDance spokesperson.
A spokeswoman for the Department of International Trade said: “ByteDance’s decision on the location of its global headquarters is a business decision for the company.”
It comes as tensions between the UK and China mount over the government’s recent decision to order the removal of Huawei 5G equipment from Britain’s mobile networks by 2027.
There are fears that it could spark an eye-for-an-eye economic war between the two countries.
Chinese Ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming told The Andrew Marr Show: “We are still evaluating the consequences. This is a very bad decision.”
When asked if China would punish UK companies operating in China, Liu said, “We don’t want to politicize the economy. That is wrong.”
But he said, “It is wrong for the UK to discriminate [against a] Chinese company due to pressure from the United States. ”
‘In the sights’
The United States has already implemented a series of sanctions against Huawei from China.
The Trump administration claims that the Chinese telecommunications firm provides a gateway for the state to spy on and potentially attack countries that use its equipment.
Huawei flatly denies the claims.
George Magnus, a research associate at the China Center at Oxford University, said it was “difficult to predict” how the Chinese government would retaliate against Huawei’s decision.
“But we hope that British companies are targeting all of this,” he said.
China is an important market for British business.
Jaguar Land Rover, owned by Tata Motors of India, sells its vehicles to China. Last month, it borrowed £ 560 million from five Chinese banks after sales dried up due to the coronavirus.
China is also a major investor in the United Kingdom, in particular the nuclear industry. The China General Nuclear Power Corporation has invested around £ 3.6bn in the UK, including the Hinkley Point nuclear power project in Somerset.
Josh Hardie, Deputy Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, said: “Post-Covid, promoting trade will be an important element of our recovery, so we need to think carefully about a future relationship that balances the UK’s global competitiveness with broader interests. “
“We do not want to politicize the economy,” Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming told the BBC about the possible repercussions for Chinese-based UK companies after the government’s makeover of Huawei.
But since both sides are using trade as a political weapon, it is impossible to see how this could not be the case.
China has a way of attacking companies as a proxy for the countries it is rowing with.
Take Australia, which has blocked Huawei from its national infrastructure since 2012.
China recently banned some of its beef business and placed tariffs on barley, designed to affect the country’s important agricultural sector.
On the other hand, China is investing large sums of money in a major infrastructure in the UK, such as nuclear power plants.
Huawei is only investing £ 1 billion in chip development at a new facility in Cambridge.
These projects are only part of the deep economic interdependence between the United Kingdom and China, which could still be the glue that maintains an increasingly icy relationship.
As Emily Taylor of the Chatham House International Security Program argues, “Mutual dependence creates stability and, if that is cut, global stability will be affected.”
TikTok currently employs around 1,000 people outside of China, most of whom are in the UK and Ireland.
The Sunday Times reported that TikTok’s decision to build its UK headquarters has the potential to create 3,000 jobs.
The Chinese video-sharing platform is very popular, and the app has been downloaded two billion times.
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is visiting the United Kingdom this week, previously said that Washington is considering banning the TikTok.
Image copyright
AFP
TikTok has already been banned in India
But last week, President Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow seemed to change course and said, “As reported in some places, I think TikTok will withdraw from the Chinese-owned holding company and operate as an independent American company. “
“That is a much better solution than prohibiting [or] Push.”
Pompeo claims that TikTok users in the United States risk their data ending up “in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”
A TikTok spokesperson said: “We have never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we if they asked us to.”
India has already blocked TikTok and other Chinese apps. Australia, which has already banned Huawei and telecom equipment maker ZTE, is also considering banning TikTok.
