China sidesteps question on TikTok after Trump says close to deal

Hong Kong CNN China s ruling body on Monday sidestepped a question on US President Donald Trump s up-to-date claim that he pretty much has a deal with Beijing to bring TikTok into American ownership and that talks with China over the popular short-video app could begin early this week TikTok s Chinese parent company ByteDance is under pressure to spin off the short-video app s US operations by September or face a ban in the United States Last year then President Joe Biden signed a sale-or-ban law requiring ByteDance to divest the app to an American owner over national prevention concerns Despite an original January deadline Trump has repeatedly delayed enforcement of the law China has reiterated its principle and position on issues related to TikTok on multiple occasions China s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated on Monday in response to a request for an update on the latest TikTok talks without providing further details When previously questioned about the TikTok deal the Foreign Ministry has urged the US to provide an open fair just and non-discriminatory business conditions for Chinese businesses and reported that acquisition of businesses should be independently decided by companies in accordance with sphere principles The Chinese establishment has given little indication that it would approve a forced sale In early a Commerce Ministry spokeswoman disclosed in the governing body s first direct response to the matter that China would oppose any forced sale of TikTok citing how a sale or divestiture of the app would involve exporting machinery and had to be approved by the Chinese regime TikTok s algorithm is widely seen as the app s secret sauce behind its explosive popularity In the US TikTok boasts over million monthly progressing users according to the company early last year Over of American teens and about a third of American adults use the social media platform according to a Pew Research Center investigation for news entertainment or even to earn a living On Friday Trump narrated reporters aboard Air Force One that the US pretty much has a deal on the sale of the app though he stated he s not confident China would approve the deal I think we re going to start Monday or Tuesday talking to China perhaps President Xi or one of his representatives but we pretty much have a deal on TikTok he declared referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping He added the deal would ostensibly have to be approved by China CNN has reached out to ByteDance and TikTok for comment In late June Trump commented that there was a buyer for TikTok teasing an announcement in two weeks It s a group of very wealthy people he revealed on a Fox News undertaking then without providing more details A deal that would transfer control of the app s US operations to American ownership had been on the horizon But Trump s announcements of reciprocal tariffs that brought levies on Chinese imports to the US to on April prompted China to pull out of the deal CNN announced earlier Based on the law ByteDance can own no more than of the platform in the final deal and the app s US operations cannot coordinate with ByteDance on the app s algorithm or data-sharing practices Alex Capri a lecturer at the Business School of the National University of Singapore advised CNN that he doubts Beijing would approve the sale Even if Beijing would choose to overlook the current tariff hikes and ratcheting up of US export controls on Chip technologies they still wouldn t grant export licenses for the algorithms he noted On Sunday American tech media The Information shared that TikTok is building a new version of its app for US users to be launched ahead of the September deadline Users will need to download the new app to continue using its platform while the existing app will shut down by March next year it commented