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

China slammed 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 principles of market ecomy and fair competition.

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

spokesperson asserted that TikTok has done almost everything 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, ding that company has t been able to escape “disguised and coercive robbery out of selfish political gains.” Zhao said that claims of TikTok undermining US national security have been dismissed Central Intelligence ncy (CIA). He furr ded that a US-based think tank also found security justification for banning an app.

“This proves once again that freedom and security is thing more than an excuse for some US politicians to pursue gunboat diplomacy in digital ,” he said.

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'Gangster logic'

Earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry h said that 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 United States for nearly a year and has even me “big compromises” like instituting an all-American manment team and storing all American user data in US and Singapore. 

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

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