In addition to the popular video service, the Chinese passenger transport service Didi has run into legal difficulties in the United States.
BEIJING China has reacted as expected harshly to the intentions of the US Congress to intervene in the ownership of the video service Tiktok.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives of Congress passed the Tiktok bill with clear numbers.
According to the legal initiative, Chinese owner Bytedance must sell Tiktok within six months. Otherwise, distribution of the application in the United States is prohibited.
The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate of Congress to take effect.
The passage of the law is therefore uncertain, but the very attempt to ban the popular video service is against international trade practices, according to China’s foreign and trade ministries.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Wang Wenbin described the way in which the project in the United States is dismissed as “rogue logic.”
– The United States should honestly respect the principles of the market economy and free competition, stop putting pressure on foreign companies and guarantee an open, fair and just environment for everyone to invest and operate in its markets, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce He Yadong said.
The Americans justify their legal initiative with the concern that the Chinese can use the information they fish with Tiktok for espionage and hybrid influence.
The Chinese ministries consider the arguments to be nonsense. They said China would take “necessary countermeasures” if the Senate passes the bill.
CEO of Tiktok Shou Zi Chew apologized for the actions of US lawmakers in a video he posted on Tiktok and X, the former Twitter.
Shou warned that banning Tiktok could have surprisingly large effects on the US economy. He argued that it would put 300,000 jobs at risk and take away billions of dollars in revenue from small businesses in the United States.
I tiktok sales revenue in the United States rose to 16 billion dollars last year, or just under 14.7 billion euros.
Globally, Tiktok’s sales in 2023 were 120 billion dollars, or a good 110 billion euros.
Didi sought protection from the Chinese
Didi, another Chinese success story of recent years, is also running into difficulties in the United States.
Didi Global, which is equivalent to Uber, will be sued in New York because it organized a share issue in 2021 despite the prohibitions of the authorities.
A telling example of the interdependence of the US and Chinese economies is that the Chinese authorities in particular demanded that the company cancel the share issue until it had sorted out its problems related to cyber security and privacy protection.
Didi Global, in the spirit of interdependence, tried to seek protection from prosecution in the United States, but the Manhattan District Court ruled otherwise.
Didi’s value was determined in the share issue to be just under 62 billion euros. Founded in 2012, the transport service has more than 550 million users in China and employs tens of millions of drivers.