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China says demand to sell TikTok to US company is political pressure

On August 3, Trump announced that US companies have roughly 45 days to ink a deal to acquire TikTok, otherwise the social media platform will be banned in the country

© rifky naufaldy/Shutterstock/FOTODOM

BEIJING, August 4. /TASS/. The United States is resorting to tools of political pressure and manipulation to obstruct activities of foreign companies operating in America, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Wang Wenbin told a briefing Tuesday, commenting on the demand put forward by US President Donald Trump to sell TikTok social media platform to Microsoft or any other American company.

"The company that engages in commercial activity in the US in accordance with market principles and international rules, abide by laws and rules enacted in the US. However, the US side is pressuring the companies, using political manipulations against them," the spokesperson noted. He also underlined, "the US should not open Pandora’s box because in this case they will have to reap what they sowed."

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"We are calling on the US side to listen carefully to the voice of the international community and their own population, not to politicize economic issues and ensure open, fair and non-discriminatory conditions to run business and facilitate global economic development," Wang Wenbin added.

On August 3, US President Donald Trump announced that Microsoft or any other US company have roughly 45 days to ink a deal to acquire TikTok, otherwise the social media platform will be banned in the country.

On July 31, Trump first revealed that he is planning to ban TikTok in the US. Earlier, Bloomberg cited its sources to inform that the US leader is going to force ByteDance, the Chinese developer of TikTok, to forego its share in the American department of the social media platform so that it will not exercise control over its operations in the country. The US administration fears that TikTok is advancing propaganda and feeds data of US users to the Chinese authorities and the Chinese Communist Party in particular.

On August 1, Microsoft said it is ready to continue talks to purchase Tiktok’s US division from ByteDance, planning to complete them by September 15, approximately when Trump’s deadline expires. It is suggested that Microsoft will also get control over TikTok in Canada, Australia and New Zealand in case the deal goes ahead. The US corporation vowed that private data of US users will not be handed over abroad under its leadership.

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