China Provides Strong Indication That It’s Open To A Deal With US To Prevent Ban After Trump Inauguration

China has provided a strong hint that it’s open to securing a deal with the US to prevent a ban.

The news comes after the app was restored within 24 hours after a temporary blackout period. It’s shocking because the company previously stated that it had no interest in a forced sale. However, after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, things have taken a different course.

Trump did indicate how America should share joint ownership rights with TikTok which would be in its best interest. He delineated how a 50-50 partnership would be best.

As per a spokesperson from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, actions related to separate businesses must be decided based on market principles. Therefore, in this case, TikTok does belong to China so the spokesperson said that Chinese laws should apply.

However, they did not deny how positive of a role the platform has played in terms of boosting employment in America and consumption. They also hoped America would give rise to a fair and just case without any form of non-discriminatory behavior when making the decision.

We saw another law come into play that banned the app in America on Sunday where TikTok did go offline during the later hours of Sunday. As a result, users could no longer install the app from American stores. The same was the case for overseas users having American accounts who faced trouble logging in.

However, it was thankfully short-lived, and within a few hours, service was restored to normal after Trump reportedly signed an executive order on Monday. He shared how the timeframe would be extended before the laws came into play. This would benefit both nations and give rise to a fruitful deal for both parties, he concluded.

This new order will also ensure there’s no liability for any organization that assisted in keeping TikTok from shutdown before the order arose.

As per another report from the WSJ, the founder of TikTok and ByteDance is known to have the right contact that could lead to partial ownership of America in TikTok through Elon Musk. Zhang Yiming and Elon Musk were also seen keeping in touch before the law came into play.

Today, Zhang has more control over TikTok’s parent firm via voting rights. However, he doesn’t hold any executive role at ByteDance at the moment.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World