More Chinese-owned apps in the US are in trouble in case TikTok is banned in the country, as per Alex Capri, a lecturer at the National University of Singapore Business School and research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation.
The US House of Representatives approved a bill on Wednesday that would prohibit TikTok from operating in the country if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell the app to a company that meets US regulatory requirements, according to CNN.
“The bill passed by the US House of Representatives puts the US on the opposite side of the principle of fair competition and international economic and trade rules,” said Wang Wenbin, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, at a briefing on Thursday.
On the other hand, according to CNN, China has also traditionally and historically blocked American apps. Prime reason being that these US social media applications defy Chinese government regulations regarding data collecting and content sharing.
Beijing presently restricts many of the Western sites, including Google, YouTube, X, Instagram, and Meta.
Google departed mainland China in 2010 after four years of operation. It said at the time that cyberattacks on Google.cn and other US corporations were the consequence of Chinese-originated attacks, and it was no longer willing to continue filtering results on the website.
Though the conditions aren't precisely the same, the situation has changed more than a decade after that well-publicised retreat.
“The TikTok bill appears likely to become law and China’s displeasure seems ironic, if not hypocritical, given its stance toward American social apps,” told Brock Silvers, managing director at Kaiyuan Capital.
When asked about China’s stance on US apps, Wang said: “this is completely different” and “you can clearly see what is bullying and what is gangster logic.”
In any case, the US Senate is the centre of attention right now, as some senators stated they are still reviewing the measure. If the measure makes it to President Joe Biden's desk, he has stated that he will sign it.
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