Chinese owner ByteDance of TikTok’s U.S. operations and would prefer to see the U.S. quick video app shut down, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said Friday.
ByteDance has been in talks to sell the U.S. company of TikTok to potential customers including Microsoft and Oracle since last month U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to ban the service if it not sold.
Trump has assigned ByteDance a mid-September deadline to finalise an agreement.
However, Chinese officials believe that a forced sale will make both ByteDance and China look vulnerable in the face of Washington pressure, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity given the situation’s sensitivity.
In a statement to Reuters, ByteDance said the Chinese government had never suggested it shut down TikTok in the United States or any other markets.
Two of the source stated China was willing to use revisions it made to a list of technology exports on August 28 to block any agreement that ByteDance might have reached, if possible.
The information office of the Chinese State Council and its foreign and trade ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent after working hours.
Asked about Trump and TikTok on Friday, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a daily press briefing that the United States was abusing the idea of national security, and urged it to avoid oppressing foreign firms.
Reuters announced that prospective buyers of TikTok were considering four ways of structuring a ByteDance acquisition. Among these, ByteDance could still go ahead with a sale of TikTok’s U.S. properties by selling them without the main algorithms without approval from China’s trade ministry.
ByteDance and its founder, Zhang Yiming, were caught up in a clash between the two superior forces of the world.
Last month Trump released two executive orders forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. properties or face banned in the country where the app is widely prevalent among adolescents.
U.S. officials have questioned the protection and privacy of the app, indicating that data about users may exchange with Beijing.
TikTok has said that exchanging user data with the Chinese authorities would not comply with any requests.
Beijing has said it strongly opposes Trump’s executive orders and moved to give itself a say in the process on August 28, revising a list of inventions that would require approval from the Chinese government before they exported.
Experts said the recommendation algorithm for TikTok would fall within that category.
Last week, Chinese regulators said the regulations were not aimed at individual firms but reaffirmed their right to enforce them.
