IT was reported Sunday, Beijing time, that US President Donald Trump approved a deal in principle between TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, and Oracle and Walmart. The main content of the deal was later disclosed. From the information provided by the US, the deal was unfair. It caters to the unreasonable demands of Washington. It’s hard for us to believe that Beijing will approve such an agreement. Although people can have various interpretations, some articles in the agreement show what the problems are. For instance, American citizens will take up four of the five board seats for TikTok Global and only one can be Chinese. The board of TikTok Global would include a national security director, who will have to be approved by the US. Oracle will have the authority to check the source code of TikTok USA and updates. As the TikTok and Douyin should have the same source code, this means the US can get to know the operations of Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. TikTok Global will control the business of TikTok around the world except China. It will block IP from the Chinese mainland to access it. This means the Americans can take control of the global business of TikTok and reject Chinese to access it. It is clear that these articles extensively show Washington’s bullying style and hooligan logic. They hurt China’s national security, interests and dignity. ByteDance is an ordinary company in China. The US suppresses it with all its national strength and forces it to sign a deal under coercion. China, also a major country, will not yield to US intimidation and will not accept an unequal treaty that targets Chinese companies.
When Trump said he had approved the new TikTok deal, he noted the new company would have “nothing to do” with China and would be fully controlled by the US. On Monday, he said Oracle and Walmart would have total control of the service; otherwise, “we’re not going to approve the deal.”It seems this is not his campaign language, but the Trump administration’s real attitude toward restructuring TikTok. Washington is way too confident and has underestimated China’s determination to defend its basic rights and dignity. The US is a big market. If the reorganization of TikTok under US manipulation becomes a model, it means once any successful Chinese company expands its business to the US and becomes competitive, it will be targeted by the US and turned into a US-controlled company via trickery and coercion, which eventually serves only US interests. If China surrenders, which country in the world can resist? The US encirclement of TikTok and the global huntdown of Huawei are stifling the hopes of high-tech companies around the world for having world-class technologies and independent development.
– Global Times
