Many in China see Washington’s determination to force Chinese company ByteDance to divest itself of TikTok as an act of robbery. But do the actions fit the crime?
Advertisement
Towards the end of his first term in office, President Donald Trump tried unsuccessfully to dislodge the Chinese company from the United States despite two executive orders, in 2020, first to ban any transaction with ByteDance and his subsidiaries, including TikTok, and then to demand ByteDance’s divestment of TikTok’s US operations.
Trump’s forced sale plans fell through, TikTok sued and, as we know, Joe Biden was elected into office. President Biden revoked the ban on TikTok but the app would face the same threat again as the temperature rose on national security concerns.
To lend a veneer of legitimacy to the second attempt to ban TikTok, Congress passed legislation in April last year to force ByteDance to divest its US operations. TikTok sued again but this time, the Supreme Court has held that the sell-or-be-banned law was constitutional.
The re-elected Trump’s decision to postpone the January 19 deadline brings but temporary relief. TikTok still needs to be sold to an American buyer. And a forced sale is hardly a viable option for ByteDance, or for that matter, any company. How could a seller with a rope around its neck hope to strike a fair deal?
Advertisement
Already, US companies are jostling for position for the tremendous bargain, expecting, it seems, to fetch the beleaguered app on the cheap. As Trump put it: “Every rich person has called me about TikTok.”