BEIJING (Reuters) -China on Wednesday said that any deal for TikTok had to comply with Chinese law, reiterating an earlier stance when asked about U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to extend the deadline for the TikTok sale by 75 days.
Trump extended the deadline last week after sources said a deal to spin off the U.S. assets of TikTok was put on hold.
China had indicated that it would not approve the deal after Trump’s tariffs announcement, they said.
Asked about the deadline extension, China “opposes practices that ignore the laws of the market economy, plunder by force, and damage the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises,” a spokesperson for China’s commerce ministry said according to a statement posted on its website.
“The specific business arrangements must comply with Chinese law, including the export of technology, which must be approved by the Chinese government.”
The algorithm TikTok relies on for its operations are deemed core to ByteDance’s overall operations but any export of the algorithm is subject to Chinese government approval, according to a law Beijing rolled out in 2020.
(Reporting by Brenda Goh and Beijing NewsroomEditing by Bernadette Baum)
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