London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 01, 2025

China may not like forced TikTok sale but experts warn few other options

China may not like forced TikTok sale but experts warn few other options

US President Donald Trump has threatened to put TikTok ‘out of business’ if its US operations are not sold by September 15, and experts say the short video app’s Beijing-based parent company ByteDance has few other options.

China may not agree with the US government’s forced sale of TikTok, but the short video app’s Beijing-based parent ByteDance does not have many other options, according to experts.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump threatened to put TikTok “out of business” in the country if it is not sold by September 15. He also said that the US government “should get a very large percentage of that price because we're making it possible”.

In response, China's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that the move against TikTok was “a blatant act of bullying” and “complete political manipulation”.

“In the absence of any evidence, the US has generalised the concept of national security, abused state power and unjustifiably suppressed certain non-American enterprise(s),” said Wang.

Chinese experts the Post spoke to also had harsh words for the Trump administration’s move to force ByteDance to divest its US operations.


Victor Gao, a chair professor at Soochow University who has served as former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s interpreter, called it “cannibalism” and “authoritarian”.

“[The US] is using the state power to force sales,” Gao said. “This will not only damage the nation’s image and break the market economy principles it has always stuck to, but also dampen Chinese and American companies’ efforts to innovate.”




Mei Xinyu, a researcher with the Ministry of Commerce, described it as “robbery”.

“This is the opposite of China's handling of Google and Facebook,” Mei said. “China's laws and regulations are very clear. You can enter [the China market] if you want to comply, and you can quit if you don't want to comply.

The United States does not have such clear laws and regulations [regarding TikTok]. Touting the rule of law in the US has become a joke.”

However, the experts agreed that ByteDance has few options given the current situation – it can either sell TikTok, shut it down or legally challenge the US decision in court, with the latter option having little chance of success.

In a letter to employees on Monday, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming said he “understands” but “disagrees” with the conclusion by the inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) that the company must fully divest TikTok’s US operations, adding that the “end solution” is still unknown.

“We have always been committed to user safety, platform neutrality, and transparency. However, we understand their decision in the current macro environment,” Zhang said in the letter.

In a separate statement the same day, ByteDance said that while facing “complex and unimaginable difficulties” in the global environment, it would “actively use the rights granted to us by the laws to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the company”.




Dov Levin, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Hong Kong, said that Bytedance can try to get an injunction against Trump's order in a US court.

But “the chances of success [of legally challenging the US decision] aren't high given that this is being done by the US government using a national security justification, which US courts in practice rarely review or overturn,” Levin added.

The best option for ByteDance, according to Dong Jielin, a research fellow at Tsinghua University's China Institute for Science and Technology Policy, is to sell TikTok in the US.

“If it chooses to quit the US rather than being sold, the stakeholders aren’t going to get a penny, which will be an irrational decision for a company,” Dong said.

Dong added that it was unlikely that the decision on TikTok would be relaxed, given that China has also blocked products by many major US tech companies.

“If TikTok can operate in the US freely, China will accordingly have to let American giants like Facebook and Google in, which for Beijing is not going to happen.”

Microsoft said on Monday that it was continuing talks to acquire the US operations of the video-sharing app after a meeting between its CEO Satya Nadella and Trump. Aside from the American software giant, there are at least two other interested buyers from the tech industry in talks with ByteDance, a person with knowledge of the matter told the Post.

For ByteDance, the loss of TikTok may not be as big a blow to the business as some may think. Although it lays claim to being probably the first Chinese app to achieve mainstream success internationally, TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company still relies mostly on its home market for revenue.

Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, generated about 89 per cent of the combined in-app revenue for both apps in June, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower.

The larger issue, according to Ben Wootliff, a Hong Kong-based partner at risk consultancy Control Risks, is the future of other Chinese technology companies operating in the US market.

“I don't think it's just going to be TikTok or ByteDance’s problem,” Wootliff said, adding that any Chinese technology company operating in the US market will “have to articulate very clearly how their business doesn't present any national security threat to the US, how their data is controlled, how they're aligned with the US or a benefit to the US” going forward.

“Even with that it could be difficult for them to persuade national security stakeholders in the US,” he said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
×