Washington: China has blocked a proposed agreement to sell American operations of Tiktok to US investors in response to President Trump’s decision to drastically increase the rates of Chinese imports, sources familiar with conversations said sources.
The structure of the agreement, which was largely ended for Wednesday, according to one of the sources, would have split American Tiktok operations in a new company based in the United States, owned and operated by most American investors. The Bytedance would contain a minority participation of less than 20%.
The agreement was approved by existing investors, the new investors, the Bytedance and the United States government, said the source.
Bytedance and the White House did not immediately respond to a comment request. The Chinese embassy in Washington DC also did not respond immediately to a request for comments.
President Donald Trump extended on Friday for 75 days a deadline for the Chinese technology firm Bytedance to sell US assets of the popular short video application Tiktok to a non -Chinese buyer or face a prohibition that would go into force in January under a 2024 law.
“The agreement requires more work to ensure that all necessary approvals are signed,” Trump said on social networks, explaining why the January deadline was extending that it would be supposed to expire on Saturday. “We hope to continue working in good faith with China, who I understand that he is not very happy with our reciprocal rates.”
China now faces a 54% tariff on the imported goods to the United States after Trump announced a 34% increase this week, which leads China to retaliate on Friday. Trump has said that he would be willing to reduce tariffs in China to finish an agreement with the Bytepedance to sell the application used by 170 million Americans.
