(Reuters) – Short video app TikTok’s owner ByteDance seems to be slow-rolling negotiations for a sale while waiting for approval from the Chinese government, even as President Donald Trump’s allies race to broker a deal to sell it to an American bidder, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
China is likely to take a hard-line approach, letting TikTok’s U.S. operations die rather than approving a sale, as it holds out for a “grand deal” with Trump’s administration that includes larger concessions on trade and tech policy, the report said.
TikTok did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on the report.
The move follows a renewal of a trade war between the world’s top two economies, as China slapped tariffs on U.S. imports, in a swift response to new U.S. duties on Chinese goods that, unlike those of Mexico and Canada, were not halted by Trump.
Trump late last month said he was in talks with multiple people over buying TikTok and would likely have a decision on the popular app’s future in the next 30 days.
The app, which is used by 170 million Americans, was taken offline temporarily for users shortly before a law that said it must be sold by ByteDance on national security grounds, or be banned, took effect on Jan. 19.
Trump, after taking office a day later, signed an executive order seeking to delay the law’s enforcement by 75 days. This law was put in place after U.S. officials warned about the risk of misuse of Americans’ data under ByteDance.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Alan Barona)
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