“[The US] is using the state power to force sales,” Gao said. “This will not only damage the nation’s image and break the market economy principles it has always stuck to, but also dampen Chinese and American companies’ efforts to innovate.”

01:14

Trump gives Microsoft 45 days to buy TikTok from China’s Bytedance

Trump gives Microsoft 45 days to buy TikTok from China’s Bytedance

Mei Xinyu, a researcher with the Ministry of Commerce, described it as “robbery”.

“This is the opposite of China's handling of Google and Facebook,” Mei said. “China's laws and regulations are very clear. You can enter [the China market] if you want to comply, and you can quit if you don't want to comply. The United States does not have such clear laws and regulations [regarding TikTok]. Touting the rule of law in the US has become a joke.”

However, the experts agreed that ByteDance has few options given the current situation – it can either sell TikTok, shut it down or legally challenge the US decision in court, with the latter option having little chance of success.

TikTok’s owner ‘understands’ but ‘disagrees’ with US ruling to divest the app

“We have always been committed to user safety, platform neutrality, and transparency. However, we understand their decision in the current macro environment,” Zhang said in the letter.

00:22

President Trump says US might ban TikTok

President Trump says US might ban TikTok

Dov Levin, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Hong Kong, said that Bytedance can try to get an injunction against Trump's order in a US court.

But “the chances of success [of legally challenging the US decision] aren't high given that this is being done by the US government using a national security justification, which US courts in practice rarely review or overturn,” Levin added.

The best option for ByteDance, according to Dong Jielin, a research fellow at Tsinghua University's China Institute for Science and Technology Policy, is to sell TikTok in the US.

US puts Chinese apps on notice as Trump gives TikTok ‘45 days’ to sell

“If it chooses to quit the US rather than being sold, the stakeholders aren’t going to get a penny, which will be an irrational decision for a company,” Dong said.

Dong added that it was unlikely that the decision on TikTok would be relaxed, given that China has also blocked products by many major US tech companies.

“If TikTok can operate in the US freely, China will accordingly have to let American giants like Facebook and Google in, which for Beijing is not going to happen.”

TikTok owner ByteDance accuses Facebook of ‘plagiarism and smears’

For ByteDance, the loss of TikTok may not be as big a blow to the business as some may think. Although it lays claim to being probably the first Chinese app to achieve mainstream success internationally, TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company still relies mostly on its home market for revenue.

Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, generated about 89 per cent of the combined in-app revenue for both apps in June, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower.

The larger issue, according to Ben Wootliff, a Hong Kong-based partner at risk consultancy Control Risks, is the future of other Chinese technology companies operating in the US market.

“I don't think it's just going to be TikTok or ByteDance’s problem,” Wootliff said, adding that any Chinese technology company operating in the US market will “have to articulate very clearly how their business doesn't present any national security threat to the US, how their data is controlled, how they're aligned with the US or a benefit to the US” going forward.

“Even with that it could be difficult for them to persuade national security stakeholders in the US,” he said.

Additional reporting by Jun Mai