China Says It Will ‘Firmly Oppose’ Forced Sale of TikTok

China stated it will oppose efforts by the USA to drive a sale of TikTok, in a public rebuke of the Biden administration that leaves the app’s Chinese language possession caught between orders from governments of the world’s two largest economies.

The feedback, made by China’s commerce ministry on Thursday, got here hours earlier than TikTok’s chief government was scheduled to testify earlier than Congress for the primary time, addressing American lawmakers’ mistrust of the favored short-form video app’s dealing with of U.S. consumer knowledge.

A commerce ministry spokeswoman stated at a information convention that China would “firmly oppose” the sale of the app. Forcing such a transaction would “significantly undermine the arrogance of buyers from numerous international locations, together with China, to spend money on the USA,” she added.

Final week, information emerged that the Biden administration needed TikTok’s Chinese language proprietor, ByteDance, to promote the app or face a potential ban. The ultimatum indicated that negotiations between the White Home and TikTok’s possession on a much less extreme compromise had stalled.

U.S. lawmakers and regulators worry that the Chinese language authorities’s broad energy over personal firms within the nation may allow authorities in Beijing to entry the info of American customers.

China’s commerce ministry stated that any sale involving the export of expertise should be “in accordance with Chinese language legal guidelines,” a suggestion that the Chinese language authorities may block any effort by ByteDance to divest TikTok. That might imperil TikTok’s efforts to persuade U.S. officers of its independence from Beijing.

Following a earlier try by the Trump administration to drive the sale of TikTok, in 2020, China revised an inventory of protected applied sciences that analysts say would require ByteDance to acquire permission from the Chinese language authorities to promote the app to an American purchaser. TikTok’s most beneficial expertise is its prized suggestions algorithm, the supply of its success attracting and retaining customers around the globe.

TikTok got here up with a proposal final yr, known as Challenge Texas, to allay U.S. officers’ nationwide safety considerations. TikTok would stay owned by ByteDance, however would put all the knowledge generated by American customers on home servers operated and run by Oracle, the software program large in Austin, Texas. Solely Oracle and U.S.-based TikTok staff would have entry to the accounts and knowledge of U.S. customers, TikTok stated.

Mr. Chew is anticipated to proceed selling the plan in his testimony earlier than Congress, the place lawmakers are anticipated to ask him powerful questions in regards to the firm’s efforts to safe American consumer knowledge, its ties to its Chinese language guardian firm and the dangers the app might pose to youngsters and kids.

In his written testimony forward of the listening to, Mr. Chew stated that ByteDance is a worldwide firm owned by worldwide buyers in addition to staff. “Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance just isn’t an agent of China or some other nation,” he stated.

TikTok and ByteDance didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.