State mouthpiece says Microsoft acquisition of TikTok’s US operations will not be accepted
US flags are seen near a TikTok logo. Picture: REUTERS/FLORENCE LO
It is Beijing’s strongest defence so far of Bytedance and its popular video platform, which President Donald Trump threatened to ban unless a deal is struck by September 15 to sell TikTok’s US business to Microsoft or another US entity. That process is tantamount to officially sanctioned theft, the Communist Party mouthpiece wrote, echoing prominent Beijing-backed media such as the Global Times.
Bytedance became the world’s largest start-up thanks to the success abroad of TikTok, which American legislators accuse of posing a threat to national security by vacuuming up data. Trump can potentially cripple Bytedance’s prized asset by adding TikTok to the US entity list, which would compel American companies such as Apple and Alphabet’s Google to drop the service from their app stores.
Trump insisted on Monday that any sale of TikTok’s US operations would have to include a substantial payment to the US. That was “open robbery,” tweeted Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Global Times, a tabloid run by the Communist Party’s flagship People’s Daily.
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