Beijing accuses US of intimidation with forced sale of TikTok

Steph Deschamps / August 5, 2020

China on Tuesday accused the United States of engaging in "outright intimidation" after Donald Trump ordered the sale by mid-September of the popular social network TikTok, owned by Chinese ByteDance. TikTok will close in the United States on September 15 "unless Microsoft or another company is able to buy it and find a deal," the US president said on Monday of the app, which has around one billion dollars. users around the world, mainly adolescents.

Asked about Donald Trump's announcement, a spokesman for Chinese diplomacy, Wang Wenbin, accused the United States of regularly attacking foreign companies by abusing the notion of national security.

"This goes against the principles of the market economy and the principles of openness, transparency and non-discrimination of the WTO," he told the press. "This is outright bullying. China is firmly against it."

Without going so far as to announce retaliatory measures, Mr. Wang said Washington was opening "Pandora's box" with its measures targeting foreign companies.

"If everyone imitates the United States, any country can take similar action against American companies in the name of national security," he warned.