Trump threw a red herring about a 50:50 ownership of TikTok between China and the USA. This is impossible because China does not own TikTok nor ByteDance. ByteDance is 60% owned by international institutions, and the three major shareholders are American companies. The two Chinese shareholders of ByteDance are its creators, and they only own 20% while the balance 20% were own by its employees. And ByteDance is a Cayman registered company, not a company registered in China.
Technically and legally, ByteDance is not a Chinese company. In the same manner, ByteDance Chinese owners proportionally own only 20% of TikTok. If the employees' shares are included, the Chinese ownership will be only 40% of TikTok. The international institutions, mainly Americans, already own 60% of TikTok.
Trump and his legal advisers cannot miss this point, and to keep on harping about a 50% ownership is just a lie, a ploy. China does not have 50% of TikTok shares to sell to the Americans. And the Americans already own 60% of TikTok, more than what Trump is asking for.
So, what is the big fuss? TikTok is as good as already own by the Americans with 60% of the share ownership. The Americans are experts in laws and not to notice this is plain trickery.
What is the real intent of the Americans for kicking such a big ruse on TikTok to the point of banning it?
1 comment:
The USA thinks it can just pull wool over people's eyes over ByteDance ownership. What the USA wants is the technology of Tik Tok that is eating the breakfast, lunch and dinner of USA's domestic apps like Meta, Twitter and Youtube, which does not provide a platform for truthful news and vloggers are censored talking about the genocide in Gaza.
If Tik Tok goes under the control of the USA, being sold to a USA company, it will have to follow the censorship regime like Meta, Twitter and Youtube. It will basically be a lame duck app. That is why, whether Tik Tok gets banned eventually or sold to a USA company, most Tik Tok refugees are saying they want to remain on Rednote.
What the USA will do is also to ban Rednote down the road using the same narrative that it is a National Security Issue, being a truly China-centric app, more so than Tik Tok. What does that tell us about a country that touted itself to have freedom in this and that but does not walk the talk. Chinese citizens describe such freedom as without choice.
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