China has slammed the US over the short-lived ban on popular video-sharing app TikTok following a Supreme Court order that upheld the Biden administration’s bill asking the parent company ByteDance to divest, referring to Washington’s “ban-or-sale” order under the guise of “national security”.
The popular video-sharing app with over 170 million users in the US was suspended on Saturday and taken off from both Google and Apple’s app stores but that only lasted for about half a day as Donald Trump restored the app for another 75 days just after he took office.
“TikTok suspended its service to US users, and both Google and Apple removed it from their app stores for the well-known reason – Washington’s “ban-or-sale” order under the guise of “national security”, China’s state-run Global Times said in an op-ed.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order extending the operations of TikTok, the Chinese-owned short video-sharing platform, by 75 days. During this period, he aims to secure a resolution that safeguards national security while preserving a platform used by 170 million Americans.
“I am instructing the attorney general not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans,” said the executive order said.
What Trump referred to as “saving TikTok” is expected to be an unpredictable and complex endeavour. Despite the ban progressing smoothly on administrative and legal fronts under the banner of “national security,” resistance from the public and the industry in the US remains strong, the op-ed said.
The platform serves as a vital connection for 170 million American users, over 7 million internet-driven businesses, and countless upstream and downstream service providers. Considering the broader trajectory of the issue, it is evident that the trap some Americans set for TikTok may have ultimately ensnared them instead, it added.
“TikTok’s plight is not an isolated case but rather a microcosm of the US market environment, where similar incidents continue to occur. From the earlier case of Alstom to the recent rejection of the merger between Nippon Steel and US Steel, the increasing overstretching of the concept of security in the US is causing interference with and suppression of foreign companies, raising concerns among market participants in various countries regarding the US. This trend is also exacerbating the uncertainty in global capital markets,” it added.
The final outcome of TikTok will act as a clear indicator—or a litmus test—of whether the US government is prepared to address issues through standard business practices or will persist in using “national security” as a pretext to undermine commercial enterprises, the Global Times stated.
