For many of America\u2019s 170 million TikTok users, US President Donald Trump\u2019s move to delay a legal ban of the popular social media platform was cause for celebration. <\/p>\n
But in China, where TikTok\u2019s parent company is based, the reception has been less positive, largely because Trump has suggested he could require the company to give up a 50% stake to <\/strong>avert its shutdown. <\/p>\n The future of TikTok should be \u201cdecided by companies\u201d in line with Chinese law, China\u2019s Foreign Ministry said Monday ahead of Trump\u2019s inauguration. <\/p>\n The US should \u201cearnestly listen to the voice of reason\u201d and \u201cprovide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment\u201d for companies from all countries, spokesperson Mao Ning said when asked about the joint venture proposal. <\/p>\n Hours after his inauguration Monday, 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. <\/p>\n The executive action followed a pledge from Trump on Sunday 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. <\/p>\n The delay will help the Trump administration \u201cdetermine 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,\u201d the order said. <\/p>\n Trump 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. <\/p>\n A joint venture involving a US firm with a 50% stake in TikTok would soften the letter of the controversial law, though it\u2019s unclear whether US lawmakers or TikTok, which denies that it poses a national security risk to Americans, would accept it. <\/p>\n On Chinese social media, where TikTok\u2019s fate has appeared as one among many efforts from the US to stymy Beijing\u2019s technical prowess, Trump\u2019s suggestions were met with distain. <\/p>\n Tens of millions of users on the social media platform Weibo <\/strong>flocked to hashtags related to the potential 50-50 ownership, with many decrying the US government\u2019s \u201crobbery.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cApple and Tesla should also give up 50% of their shares to Chinese companies then,\u201d one comment with thousands of likes said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe need 50% control of Nvidia then!\u201d said another commentator, referring to the US chipmaker. <\/p>\n \u201cChina will not let ByteDance kneel down,\u201d another comment read, referring to TikTok\u2019s parent company. \u201cRobbery does not change its nature just because it changes from 100% to 50%,\u201d the comment added. <\/p>\n Media giant ByteDance does not operate TikTok in China, but its sister app Douyin is popular domestically. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, an editorial in the state-run nationalist tabloid Global Times on <\/strong>Tuesday looked at the handling of the US ban and concluded that \u201cthe trap some Americans set for TikTok has ensnared them instead.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThe 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 \u2018deep personal pain\u2019 for some who rely on it for their livelihood,\u201d the editorial read. <\/p>\n Despite the uncertainty around the fate of TikTok, both the US and China have appeared to show their interest in dialogue as the new administration gets underway. <\/p>\n In a phone call with Trump on Friday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for a \u201cnew starting point\u201d in US-China relations and stressed their \u201cextensive common interests.\u201d Trump noted that the call included discussion of TikTok. <\/p>\n Xi also dispatched Chinese Vice President Han Zheng to Trump\u2019s inauguration, the seniormost official Beijing has ever sent to an American presidential inauguration. <\/p>\n Trump\u2019s executive order on TikTok stands as one of a range of signals from the newly sworn-in president that he is willing to negotiate with Beijing, despite campaigning on a hardline stance on the country, the US\u2019s key geopolitical rival. <\/p>\n Trump on Monday also refrained from slapping tariffs on Chinese goods, something observers suggested could be on his day one agenda. While on the campaign trial, Trump threatened upwards of 60% tariffs on Chinese imports into the US, and Beijing has been braced for sharper economic competition with the US under his term. <\/p>\n When asked about those tariffs Monday, Trump said duties he imposed as president the first time around were still in place. He did not name any timeline within which when he might levy more duties, despite saying tariffs against Mexican and Canadian goods were likely to go into place February 1. <\/p>\n But Trump also suggested tariffs could be linked to TikTok\u2019s fate \u2013 raising questions about the kind of hard bargaining the president may have in mind in the months ahead. <\/p>\n In remarks in the Oval Office Monday, Trump posited levying as much as 100% tariffs on China if Beijing didn\u2019t approve a potential future agreement. <\/p>\n \u201cIf we wanted to make a deal with TikTok and it was a good deal and China wouldn\u2019t approve it \u2026 I think ultimately, they\u2019d approve it because we\u2019d put tariffs on China, maybe,\u201d he said, while suggesting this wasn\u2019t the only approach he could take. <\/p>\n Beijing has previously suggested it has the legal authority to block any deal involving TikTok, because a sale or divestiture would involve \u201cexporting technology\u201d \u2013 an apparent reference to the potential sale of the app\u2019s proprietary algorithm. <\/p>\n Trump ally and Tesla CEO Elon Musk also joined the fray discussing the future of TikTok by alluding to the \u201cneed for change\u201d 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\u2019s X. <\/p>\n Musk pointed out how X is not available in China. Most major American-owned tech platforms are blocked in the country due to Beijing\u2019s stringent controls on speech and information under the so-called Great Firewall. <\/p>\n \u201cI have been against a TikTok ban for a long time, because it goes against freedom of speech,\u201d Musk wrote. \u201cThat said, the current situation where TikTok is allowed to operate in America, but \ud835\udd4f is not allowed to operate in China is unbalanced. Something needs to change.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For many of America\u2019s 170 million TikTok users, US President Donald Trump\u2019s move to delay a legal ban of the popular social media platform was cause for celebration. But in China, where TikTok\u2019s parent company is based, the reception has been less positive, largely because Trump has suggested he could require the company to give…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Backlash in China<\/h2>\n
TikTok and tariffs<\/h2>\n