BEIJING: China blasted Washington’s “bandit” mentality on Thursday after the US House passed a bill that would ban TikTok unless it splits from its Chinese owner, as former Trump treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said he is preparing a buyout plan.

The short-video app has soared in popularity worldwide but its ownership by Chinese technology giant ByteDance — and alleged subservience to Beijing’s ruling Communist Party — has fuelled concern in Western capitals.

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill that would force TikTok to divest from its parent company or face a nationwide ban.

The bill is yet to pass the Senate, where it is expected to face a tougher test to become law.

EU targets TikTok, X, Facebook, Google, YouTube over AI risk to elections

“The US should truly respect the principles of a market economy and fair competition (and) stop unjustly suppressing foreign companies,” Beijing’s commerce ministry spokesperson He Yadong said at a press conference.

Washington should also “provide an open, fair, just, and non-discriminatory environment for foreign companies to invest and operate in the US”, he said. “China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” he added.

‘Should be sold’

At a separate press briefing, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the vote “runs contrary to the principles of fair competition and international economic and trade rules”.

“If so-called reasons of national security can be used to arbitrarily suppress excellent companies from other countries, then there is no fairness and justice at all,” Mr Wang said. “When someone sees a good thing, another person has and tries to take it for themselves, this is entirely the logic of a bandit.”

Mr Mnuchin, who served for four years as former president Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, on Thursday said he is putting together a team of investors to buy TikTok from its Chinese owners, once the bill passed. “I think the legislation should pass and I think (TikTok) should be sold,” he told CNBC.

Mr Mnuchin said that TikTok was “a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy” the embattled app. “This should be owned by US businesses. There’s no way that the Chinese would ever let a US company own something like this in China,” he said.

China has blocked Western online platforms such as Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) for years on its heavily censored internet.

US lawmakers voted 352 in favour of the proposed law and 65 against, striking a rare note of unity in politically divided Washington.

The White House has said President Joe Biden will sign the bill — known officially as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act — into law if it reaches his desk.

But it faces a tricky path through the more cautious Senate, where some are wary of taking dramatic measures against an app with 170 million US users.

EU targets apps over AI risks

Meanwhile, the European Union on Thursday wielded a powerful new digital law to press TikTok and seven other platforms on the AI risks for upcoming elections in the 27-nation bloc, including from deepfakes. In a flurry of actions taken under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the European Commission quizzed TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, Google, YouTube, Snapchat and Bing on what they were doing to counter those risks.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2024