TikTok has called reports that China is considering a sale “pure fiction.” the social media company’s US operations to Elon MuskCEO of X (formerly Twitter), to avoid the ban imposed by the United States.
Supreme Court justices are expected to rule on a law requiring Chinese company ByteDance to divest TikTok’s US operations by January 19.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Chinese officials have discussed options internally, including the possibility of allowing a trusted, non-Chinese entity, such as Elon Musk, to invest in or take control of the platform’s operations in the US.
The newspaper underlines that it was not possible to establish whether Chinese officials had submitted the idea to Musk at the top, but highlights how the news of the possibility of an agreement with Musk was initially spread by Bloomberg with the dry reply of a TikTok representative. “You can’t expect comments on pure fiction”he told the WSJ.
TikTok and China-US relations
The TikTok case is one of the issues that puts a strain on relations between China and the United States, where Donald Trump returns to the presidency next Monday. And, writes the WSJ, Beijing leaders consider an opening on TikTok as a possible card to playeven more so in view of the expected clash over tariffs.
So, the paper continues, officials have so far concluded it was best to let the ban go into effect, with TikTok at ByteDance, so that negotiations can continue after Trump takes office. And among the options, to be evaluated after January 20, officials have considered a possible opening to a deal with Elon Musk.
According to the sources, the Chinese government has not communicated the ’emergency’ plans to ByteDance and Beijing would not order ByteDance to sell the app to a particular investor, but it also plays a key role because Chinese export controls require the government approval for the sale of domestically developed algorithms.
Tik Tok’s legal team has challenged the law, arguing that it violates the free expression rights of millions of US users. In contrast, the US government has stated that ByteDance’s ownership of Tik Tok poses a national security risk.
