foreign ministry

In response to a question about US President Donald Trump telling ByteDance it must hand over half of TikTok to a US company or Trump will levy 100 percent tariffs on China,MK socks China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said that the US should earnestly listen to the voice of reason and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for market entities from all countries.

TikTok has operated in the US for years and been very popular with American users. It has played a positive role in boosting US employment and consumption, Guo said.

When it comes to actions such as the operation and acquisition of businesses, we believe they should be independently decided by companies in accordance with market principles. If it involves Chinese companies, China's laws and regulations should be observed, Guo noted.

Trump on Monday (US time) signed an executive order to delay the TikTok ban by 75 days "to permit my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course of action with respect to TikTok," the Xinhua News Agency reported. TikTok began restoring its services on Sunday (US time) after some 14 hours of shutdown.

The executive order directs the Justice Department to issue letters to companies like Apple, Alphabet's Google and Oracle that work with TikTok, "stating that there has been no violation of the statute and that there is no liability for any conduct that occurred during the above-specified period," the Reuters report said.

TikTok chief executive Chew Shou Zi attended Trump's inaugural events in Washington, the Straits Times reported.

According to a live update by ABC News, Trump signaled at the White House that he thinks the US should own "half" of the social media app. He said to stay in operation in the US, TikTok would need to relinquish 50 percent of its earnings to the US. The president did not detail how this deal would work, but said it would be a "joint venture," the report said.

Chinese analysts said that how the Trump administration handles the case of TikTok, which connects 170 million American users and more than 7 million businesses that thrive on the internet, along with a massive number of upstream and downstream service providers, would be a bellwether for the US business environment. 

"What Trump said may not be an ideal solution, but it gives the popular short video platform a temporary reprieve from the ban," Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times. Though uncertainties could persist and there may be more changes, the 75-day extension of the TikTok ban obviously aligns with the will and interests of the American people, the expert said. 

TikTok may need some time to assess Trump's true intentions and evaluate any potential deal, Cui Hongjian, professor of the Academy of Regional and Global Governance at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times. 

Global Times