China state-affiliated media says that the Chinese government will not approve the current TikTok deal with Oracle and Walmart. The editor of a communist party paper, Global Times, tweeted this:
Based on what I know, Beijing won’t approve current agreement between ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, and Oracle, Walmart, because the agreement would endanger China’s national security, interests and dignity.
The Global Times editor later explained his tweet within an article in the newspaper making these points:
For instance, American citizens will take up four of the five board seats for TikTok Global and only one can be Chinese. The board of TikTok Global would include a national security director, who will have to be approved by the US.
Oracle will have the authority to check the source code of TikTok USA and updates. As the TikTok and Douyin should have the same source code, this means the US can get to know the operations of Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok
TikTok Global will control the business of TikTok around the world except China. It will block IP from the Chinese mainland to access it. This means the Americans can take control of the global business of TikTok and reject Chinese to access it.
Source: Global Times
The Global Times editor says that “the US suppresses it with all its national strength and forces it to sign a deal under coercion.” The editor added that “China, also a major country, will not yield to US intimidation and will not accept an unequal treaty that targets Chinese companies.”