China Fighting the U.S. Effort To Seize TikTok
Sept. 26, 2020 (EIRNS)—Global Times reports today that
“China is prepared to prevent Chinese firm TikTok and its advanced technologies from falling into U.S. hands at all cost, even if that means the vastly popular video sharing app risks being shut down in the U.S., because allowing the U.S. to seize the firm and its technology will not only set a dangerous precedent for other Chinese firms, but also pose a direct threat to China’s national security, Chinese experts said on Saturday, a day ahead of a court battle in the U.S. over a ban of the app.”
The DOJ filed a brief to the court Friday night, Sept. 25, in answer to the TikTok motion to dismiss the ban on downloading the TikTok app in the U.S., which is scheduled to go into effect at midnight Sunday. A Federal judge will hear the arguments Sunday morning at 9:30. The DOJ filing claims that Zhang Yiming, the CEO of ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, has made public statements showing he is “committed to promoting” the agenda of the Chinese Communist Party. This of course is not a legal argument, and in fact they don’t even provide evidence of that meaningless claim.
Global Times asserts that “the case goes way beyond just a mafia-style robbery of a lucrative Chinese business and cutting-edge technologies, but a threat to its national security, because the U.S. could find loopholes in those technologies to launch cyber and other attacks on China and other countries to preserve its hegemony,” referring to “experts.”
They also report that Chinese officials are
“reviewing a proposed deal between ByteDance and Oracle and Walmart to form a partnership, under which the Chinese firm would maintain majority ownership and won’t transfer its algorithm to the U.S. companies. ByteDance officially submitted the plan to Beijing officials on Sept. 24, and the Chinese Commerce Ministry said that it would handle the case in accordance with laws and regulations. Under newly revised Chinese regulations, algorithm transfers are banned. Chinese experts closely following the TikTok case said that China was unlikely to approve the plan, and will take all necessary measures to protect the Chinese business and technologies from the U.S. robbery, even if that could cost the Chinese firm the U.S. market.”
The Sept. 25 editorial in Global Times states:
“Starting with the global siege of Huawei, Washington has been stigmatizing Chinese high-tech companies and trying to convince the world that these companies are the Chinese government’s informants. However, they do not have any evidence. Again and again, they have instigated public opinion, but insiders and most leaders worldwide know that this is Washington’s bluff for political purposes. Therefore, many Western countries have adopted a wait-and-see attitude on Huawei.”
Meanwhile, Huawei has cancelled its planned innovation center for Australia due to the Aussie capitulating to Pompeo by banning Huawei from their 5G system. Huawei is instead opening such a center in Thailand.
