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TikTok USA deal pandemonium

China unhappy over President Donald Trump’s rescue mission for its ByteDance owned social media platform TikTok – Trump had said the platform influenced people to vote for him and halted the ban imposed by his predecessor Joe Biden

Tik Tok : Underpressure

Though most of America’s 170 million TikTok users celebrated US President Donald Trump’s move to delay a legal ban on the popular social media platform Tik-Tok, the China based owners ByteDance were less than happy over the compromise formula that the company divest 50% of its equity in favour of a company in USA to avoid a shutdown.
Elon Musk is contemplating to buy that 50% equity in Tik Tok in exchange for China to allow X (Twitter) to operate in China. China is angry and wants 50% equity in Nvidia, semiconductor company and Apple operating in China.
ByteDance, the parent company in China, did not like Trump’s suggestion that the company needed to give up a 50% stake to avert a shutdown and suggested tariffs on Chinese goods could hinge on whether Beijing approves a potential future deal.
When asked about Trump’s vision for the future of TikTok, China’s Foreign Ministry said the “operation and acquisition of companies” should be “decided by companies” and in line with Chinese law. The US should “earnestly listen to the voice of reason” and “provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment” for companies from all countries, spokesperson Guo Jiakun said.
Hours after his inauguration, Trump issued an executive order delaying for 75 days the enforcement of a controversial law, which requires that TikTok be banned in the US unless it sells to a buyer from America or one of its allies.
The executive action followed a pledge from Trump that he would delay enforcement. TikTok said that assurance allowed it to come back online after going dark for more than 12 hours over the weekend.
The delay will help the Trump administration “determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans,” the order said, according to the CNN news network.
Trump in recent days has repeatedly suggested that he could be open to an American buyer purchasing half of the company and running it as a 50-50 joint venture with its current Chinese owner ByteDance. A joint venture involving a US firm with a 50% stake in TikTok would soften the letter of the controversial law, though it’s unclear whether US lawmakers or TikTok, which denies that it poses a national security risk to Americans, would accept it.
Backlash in China
On Chinese social media, where TikTok’s fate has appeared as one among many efforts from the US to stymie Beijing’s technical prowess, Trump’s suggestions were met with disdain. Tens of millions of users on the social media platform Weibo (Facebook equivalent) flocked to hashtags related to the potential 50-50 ownership, with many decrying the US government’s “robbery.”
“Apple and Tesla should also give up 50% of their shares to Chinese companies then,” one comment with thousands of likes said.
As US TikTok users move to RedNote, some are encountering Chinese-style censorship for the first time. “We need 50% control of Nvidia then!” said another commentator, referring to the US chipmaker.
“China will not let ByteDance kneel down,” another comment read, referring to TikTok’s parent company. “Robbery does not change its nature just because it changes from 100% to 50%,” the comment added.
Media giant ByteDance does not operate TikTok in China, but its sister app Douyin is popular domestically. Meanwhile, an editorial in the state-run nationalist tabloid Global Times looked at the handling of the US ban and concluded that “the trap some Americans set for TikTok has ensnared them instead.”
“The political manipulation of an overstretched concept of security against TikTok has not only caused fluctuations in the emotions of the American public but has also led to ‘deep personal pain’ for some who rely on it for their livelihood,” the editorial read.
TikTok and tariffs
As uncertainty still dogs TikTok, both the US and China seem to have evinced interest in a dialogue to resolve the crisis as the new Trump administration gets underway with its 100-day agenda. In a phone call with Trump, Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for a “new starting point” in US-China relations and stressed their “extensive common interests.” Trump noted that the call included discussion of TikTok.
Xi Jinping, Chinese supremo, also dispatched Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, to Trump’s inauguration, the senior most official Beijing has ever sent to an American presidential inauguration. Trump’s executive order on TikTok exemplifies the newly sworn-in president’s strong signals that he is willing to negotiate with Beijing, despite campaigning on a hardline stance on the country, the US’s key geopolitical rival.

Elon Musk ready to buy 50% stake in TikTok

Trump also refrained from slapping tariffs on Chinese goods, something observers suggested could be on his day one agenda. While on the campaign trail, Trump threatened upwards of 60% tariffs on Chinese imports into the US, and Beijing has been bracing for sharper economic competition with the US.
When asked about those tariffs, Trump said duties he imposed as president the first time around were still in place. He did not name any timeline within which he might levy more duties, despite saying tariffs against Mexican and Canadian goods could go into place in first February.
Trump suggested tariffs could be linked to TikTok’s fate, bringing up questions if he is using it as a bargaining chip on tariffs in the months ahead. In remarks in the Oval Office, Trump posited levying as much as 100% tariffs on China if Beijing didn’t approve a potential future agreement.
“If we wanted to make a deal with TikTok and it was a good deal and China wouldn’t approve it … I think ultimately, they’d approve it because we’d put tariffs on China, maybe,” he said, while suggesting this wasn’t the only approach he could take.
Beijing has previously suggested it has the legal authority to block any deal involving TikTok, saying such a sale or divestiture would involve “exporting technology” – an apparent reference to the potential sale of the app’s proprietary algorithm.
Trump ally and Tesla CEO Elon Musk also joined the fray discussing the future of TikTok by alluding to the “need for change” in comments Sunday on X, the social media platform he owns. According to Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, Chinese officials are discussing a possible option that involves selling at least a portion of the US version of the app to Musk’s X.
Musk pointed out how X is not available in China. Most major American-owned tech platforms are blocked in the country due to Beijing’s stringent controls on speech and information under the so-called Great Firewall.
“I have been against a TikTok ban for a long time, because it goes against freedom of speech,” Musk wrote. “That said, the current situation where TikTok is allowed to operate in America, but X is not allowed to operate in China is unbalanced. Something needs to change.”
Source : Inputs from CNN and other US publications.

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Contributor, IANS - Washington DC/New York
Executive Editor, Corporate Tycoons - Pune, India
Executive Editor, The Flag Post - Bengaluru, India
Contributor, The Statesman, Hindu Business Line, Sarkaritel.com, Diplomacyindia.com

Former Economics Editor, PTI - New Delhi, India
Former Communications Advisor,
Alstom Group of Companies, SA - France/Belgium

Written by
TN ASHOK

Contributor, IANS - Washington DC/New York Executive Editor, Corporate Tycoons - Pune, India Executive Editor, The Flag Post - Bengaluru, India Contributor, The Statesman, Hindu Business Line, Sarkaritel.com, Diplomacyindia.com Former Economics Editor, PTI - New Delhi, India Former Communications Advisor, Alstom Group of Companies, SA - France/Belgium

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