China accuses US of abusing national security concept to force TikTok sale

China accused the United States of abusing the concept of national security to oppress non-American companies after US President Donald Trump denied the possibility of a deadline extension for the sale of TikTok operations. Trump signed an executive order on August 6 banning American citizens and businesses from doing any transaction with TikTok, its parent company ByteDance Ltd., and messaging app WeChat after 45 days.

“I’m not extending deadlines, no. It’s September 15th. There’ll be no extension of the TikTok deadline,” Trump told reporters before Air Force One departure.

Trump said that the video-sharing social media company has to either close its operations in the US or has to sell it before the deadline. The executive order stated that these steps have been taken because the applications threatened national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that Beijing opposes the attempt to abuse the concept of national security and use its power to oppress specific companies of other countries. Last month, Zhao had asserted that TikTok has done almost everything the US side demands, including job promises and moving data centres out of China. 

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TikTok controversy

The spokesperson accused “some” US politicians of attempting to strangle TikTok with baseless excuses, adding that the company has not been able to escape “disguised and coercive robbery out of selfish political gains.” Zhao said that the claims of TikTok undermining US national security have been dismissed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 

Chinese Foreign Ministry had said that the executive order signed by Trump to force a sale of TikTok within 45 days was “sheer gangster logic” and “daylight robbery”. Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said in an interview that TikTok has been communicating with the United States for nearly a year and has even made “big compromises” like instituting an all-American management team and storing all American user data in the US and Singapore. 

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