Miscellaneous News

Petrolicious88 said:

It is not inconsequential. It all depends on how it’s sold and the terms of the deal.

Look at what Trump is saying. He’s basically saying not only will Bytedance be forced to sell Ticktok, it will also have to pay the US treasury for letting this deal happen. This is a Mafia like tactic of forcing someone to sell their business and having to pay them again because they “let you sell it”.

If Bytedance or China agrees to these terms, it’s nothing short of humiliation!! Entire world will see how China is bullied.

And guess what. In a few months, Bytedance will still end up on the sanctioned list.

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It's inconsequential because ByteDance is a private company. What it decides will have no bearing on China's path.

Sure, the Chinese government can, and maybe should, block the sale, but that's a decision I'm sure the relevant officials are more qualified to make.

So far, there has been no mention of blocking the sale from the Chinese government's side. Maybe they're just biding their time, or maybe they think it's not worth the effort. Either way, I trust they will make the correct decision.

SampanViking said:

Tik Tok is an App so how exactly do you ban it? Yes YT FB and others are banned in China, but people can easily access them all using VPN.
Same thing with Tik Tok. I note that Byte Dance is looking to relocate from US to London, thus taking it out of US jurisdiction. Thats really all you need to do.
Huawei smart phones and Tik Tok are both very popular with kids. I cannot think of anything to make them more popular than to tell the kids that grown ups like Trump think they are bad. Let Huawei stick a dedicated Tik Tok VPN on their phones and watch both go through the stratosphere!

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Well, the whole business model of video sharing apps is ad revenue. If the US puta TikTok/ByteDance on its sanctions list, no American company would be able to pay them for ads.

While the overwhelming majority of ByteDance’s ad revenue is from the Chinese market, a lot of that would be American companies running ads for their Chinese businesses. Take all that away and it will probably be a fair hit to their books.

But I think the real reason ByteDance is caving, and also why Beijing is disinclined to help it beyond the minimal out of principles, is that its rich owners are worried about themselves being personally sanctioned by the US. Which will massively limit where they can go on holiday and what they can do with all their money.

But I fully expect Trump to piss on any deal he strikes as soon as his cut clears the bank. It’s impossible to strike honest deals with such a lowlife.

Personally I hope and think the Chinese government will force ByteDance to not comply to US blackmail and extortion demands, as that is what this is plain and simple.

If ByteDance’s owners had any backbone, they would have just said fuck off to Trump and announced the immediate closure of its US locations and the firing of staff employed in the US.

With a natural born bully like Trump, the only way you get him to back off is if you punch him hard on his nose. Giving in to his demands will just encourage him to come back tomorrow to ask for even more.

solarz said:

It's inconsequential because ByteDance is a private company. What it decides will have no bearing on China's path.

Sure, the Chinese government can, and maybe should, block the sale, but that's a decision I'm sure the relevant officials are more qualified to make.

So far, there has been no mention of blocking the sale from the Chinese government's side. Maybe they're just biding their time, or maybe they think it's not worth the effort. Either way, I trust they will make the correct decision.

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Yea normally the government should stay clear of a private business deal.

But this is Anything BUT THAT. This is a Gangster move of robbing someone of their legitimate business, and then asking for more money because he “let you sell it”. This is playing out on the world stage.

Chinese government is suppose to protect the interests of Chinese companies, not let it be humiliated in front of the world! If China or Bytedance agrees to Trump’s terms, you can forget about Chinese companies being treated fairly in the future.

At this point it's pretty clear that ByteDance has to sell the majority stake for its US division of TikTok. There's no point of pointing fingers at a private company for being "unpatriotic" or "spineless" because after all it has to pay its people. This is a matter of digital sovereignty and I don't think US will ever cave in.

That is not to say that ByteDance has no cards to play at all. Two things I can think of right off my head are:
1) Require Microsoft to transfer a minority stake (30-40%) of its Greater China division to ByteDance. After all, MS gets a pretty sizable chunk of its revenues and R&D from the Greater China region.
2) Require Microsoft to pay the acquisition in RMB or at least a major part of it has to be in RMB.

plawolf said:

If ByteDance’s owners had any backbone, they would have just said fuck off to Trump and announced the immediate closure of its US locations and the firing of staff employed in the US.

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Nah, not immediately. Right after Trump bans Tiktok.

not good

this on the heels of a string of "mysterious" explosions and fires in Iran recently...

SteelBird said:

I guess after the deal, TikTok US/Canada/Australia/New Zealand will have a new name, like some of us suggested, TokTik. Then the Trump administration will ban TikTok from iOS and Android. Only TokTik will remain and will conquer the whole world.

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Why should Australia Canda and NZ be allowed to be part of the sale and Whats to stop the rest of the countries in the world to be part of the sale?

Nuking what deal? Basically it's been China better buy American products or Trump will keep slapping tariffs. Gonna nuke how the US is making billions off of China paying the tariff...? Not sure what he means by "nuking" unless his base just wants to hear the US is nuking China for them to get excited about it. All for the election... Nothing Trump has done in his trade war against China has worked as anticipated. LOL!!!!

AssassinsMace said:

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Nuking what deal? Basically it's been China better buy American products or Trump will keep slapping tariffs. Gonna nuke how the US is making billions off of China paying the tariff...? Not sure what he means by "nuking" unless his base just wants to hear the US is nuking China for them to get excited about it. All for the election... Nothing Trump has done in his trade war against China has worked as anticipated. LOL!!!!

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The "WarTime President", fighting the Invisible China Virus is now threatening to "Nuke" the China Trade Deal....
He better get to it, not much time left... Tik Tok Tik Tok...

BMEWS said:

The "WarTime President", fighting the Invisible China Virus is now threatening to "Nuke" the China Trade Deal....
He better get to it, not much time left... Tik Tok Tik Tok...

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The problem with the current Trump administration is that a lot of Trump's advisors are irrational people. It's not possible to negotiate and engage in constructive dialogue with irrational people, not to mention predicting their actions or intentions.

A lot of the Republican senators sincerely believe COVID was a Chinese invention created in a lab aimed to sabotage the U.S. Maybe it's because these senators were around during the Cold War where the USSR was capable of launching such attacks. In this context and from their perspective, China has directly attacked the U.S.

China is probably taking a hard look at the current situation and will act accordingly post elections, when constructive dialogue can be reestablished. I think a strong Chinese response just before elections can cause unpredictable responses from the current administration, which would play into Trump's hand as he needs something to derail current elections.