Beijing has urged Washington to refrain from setting an example that other countries could follow against U.S. businesses by demanding that Chinese video-sharing platform TikTok be sold to a U.S. corporation.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said on Tuesday that the advice had become necessary as the U.S. could fall victim to similar circumstances.
On Monday, U.S. President, Donald Trump, said during a meeting at the White House that he had set Sept. 15 as the deadline for TikTok to be bought by an American company, such as Microsoft, or close down.
“Following the U.S. erroneous logic, any country can take similar measures against any American company under the pretext of protecting national security.
“The U.S. should not open Pandora’s box, otherwise, they will reap the bitter fruits themselves,” Wang said at a briefing.
The spokesman also called on Washington to take heed of the international community and the U.S. public and to not politicise economic issues but provide an open, non-discriminatory, free investment, and business environment for companies.
In early July, U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said that the Trump administration was considering a ban on access to the TikTok app over privacy concerns.
The social network claims user data is safe and not shared with the Chinese authorities.
Meanwhile, Beijing has called on Washington to stop using government mechanisms to pressure Chinese companies.
Earlier this week, Microsoft said that it planned to finish negotiations with ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, on the purchase of the Chinese-based video-sharing app by no later than Sept. 15.
According to Microsoft, TikTok will be subject to a complete security review and all the private data of TikTok’s U.S. users will be transferred to the U.S. in order to ensure transparency and government oversight. (Sputnik/NAN)
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