State media blasts 'anti-China show' as American lawmakers seek to force sale of TikTok

Chinese state media has voiced support for TikTok, the hit short video platform owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, as it faces pressure to sell the business in the US after a committee in the House of Representatives unanimously approved two bills targeting the app over security concerns.

The first proposal, if enacted, would grant ByteDance 180 days to divest TikTok or face a ban in app stores and US-based web-hosting services. The second bill would prevent data brokers from transferring sensitive data on American users to foreign governments.

ByteDance has remained silent on the issue, leaving TikTok to defend itself, but state media has taken the opportunity to speak out against the US action.

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Global Times, a tabloid affiliated with the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's ruling communist party, on Thursday described the move as "another show of anti-China forces in the US Congress".

Gao Lingyun, a researcher at the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying that it was "an unreasonable move by US lawmakers to gain attention and political reputation". Zhou Mi, a researcher affiliated with the Ministry of Commerce, was also quoted as saying that new bills "would have a very negative impact on the investment environment in the US".

State-run broadcaster China Central Television also reported the news on Friday. It reiterated what foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said last year, that "data security should not be used as a tool to overstretch the national security concept to hobble foreign companies".

In response, TikTok has urged its US users to call their local congressional offices to speak out against the move. Separately, after the vote, it repeated an earlier statement saying that the proposals would "strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression".

The latest backlash marks the first notable US legislative effort in almost a year to get ByteDance to divest TikTok, following stalled 2023 US Senate legislation that met heavy lobbying by the Chinese social media giant.

Fans sit under a TikTok ad at a baseball game at Yankee Stadium, April 14, 2023, in New York. Photo: AP alt=Fans sit under a TikTok ad at a baseball game at Yankee Stadium, April 14, 2023, in New York. Photo: AP>

But analysts say China will not allow the sale of TikTok, and that even in the US, the act would face procedural obstacles.

"A divestment is not possible. China would see it as not only a slap in the face, but the US controlling one of its national champions", said Cameron Johnson, a senior partner at consulting firm Tidal Wave Solution in Shanghai, an American businessman with 25 years' experience in China.

"If TikTok [was] divested, more pressure builds to do this to other companies such as Temu, Shein, etc", he added.

Alex Capri, a senior lecturer at the National University of Singapore and a research fellow at Singapore-based philanthropic organisation Hinrich Foundation, said divisions between the House and Senate would slow the process down.

"Unlike the House committee vote ... passage in the Senate is likely to be more contentious," he said. If the Senate passes the bill with changes, negotiations between the two chambers would take place to "reach a compromise version of the bill", which "could take a long time", he added.

Given that, the deadline for ByteDance's divestment of TikTok "would probably get extended beyond the November 2024 midterm and presidential elections", Capri said.

Similar attempts to ban or force the sale of TikTok in the US date back to 2020, during the administration of former US President Donald Trump, but various executive orders and bills have been stalled or blocked by US courts.

Beijing partly thwarted Washington's moves against TikTok in 2020 by revising its rules on technology exports. Software, including the algorithm that serves as TikTok's recommendation engine, was included in the restricted list. That means TikTok's US operations could be sold, but not the key technology that powers the app.

"Ironically, many of the Senate and House representatives that would vote on enacting the divestiture, are actually using the TikTok platform to reach voters in the upcoming election campaigns," said Capri. Similarly, US President Joe Biden also opened a TikTok account last month.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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