China accuses US of pursuing 'digital gunboat diplomacy' over Trump's ByteDance order

China slammed the United States for pursuing “digital gunboat diplomacy” after US President Donald Trump ordered TikTok's parent company ByteDance to divest its interest in Musical.ly app within 90 days. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a regular press briefing such bullying practices are a flagrant denial of the principles of market economy and fair competition.

“Those practices violate international trade rules, undermine other countries' interests, and will surely damage the US own interests. We urge the US to immediately correct its mistakes and stop smearing China and wantonly oppressing foreign companies,” said Zhao.

The spokesperson asserted that TikTok has done almost everything the US side demands, including job promises and moving data centres out of China. He went on to accuse “some” US politicians of attempting to strangle TikTok with baseless excuses, adding that the company has not been able to escape “disguised and coercive robbery out of selfish political gains.” Zhao said that the claims of TikTok undermining US national security have been dismissed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He further added that a US-based think tank also found no security justification for banning an app.

“This proves once again that freedom and security is nothing more than an excuse for some US politicians to pursue gunboat diplomacy in the digital age,” he said.

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'Gangster logic'

Earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry had said that the executive order signed by Trump to force a sale of TikTok within 45 days was “sheer gangster logic” and “daylight robbery”. Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said in an interview that TikTok has been communicating with the United States for nearly a year and has even made “big compromises” like instituting an all-American management team and storing all American user data in the US and Singapore. 

“Even if it ends up being acquired, a substantial portion of the money must be paid to the US government. What kind of ‘art of the deal’ is this? This is sheer gangster logic and daylight robbery,” the ministry website quoted Le as saying.

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