TikTok sale: ByteDance applies for China tech export licence amid uncertainty over Oracle-Walmart deal
- TikTok-owner ByteDance has applied for a technology export licence to comply with China’s recently revised tech export rules, it says
- The Beijing-based company earlier said the proposed deal with Oracle and Walmart does not involve the transfer of any technologies
The company has submitted an application to Beijing’s municipal commerce bureau and is awaiting a decision, it said in a statement posted on its news aggregator Jinri Toutiao late on Wednesday night.
China’s Ministry of Commerce confirmed at a press conference on Thursday afternoon that Beijing’s Municipal Commerce Bureau had received the tech export licence application from ByteDance. “We will process it according to the relevant laws and regulations,” ministry spokesman Gao Feng said.
It is unclear when exactly ByteDance applied for the licence, and the Beijing-based company did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said last month that government approval for restricted exports would take up to 45 working days, so if the process was started on Wednesday it may not receive a decision until the end of November, according to the Post’s calculations.
Trump and Beijing at loggerheads over ByteDance’s Oracle deal
This means that potential approval may not come before Trump’s deadline of November 12, after which the short video app may face further restrictions if a deal is not reached.
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The deal faces hurdles in obtaining approval from both the White House and Beijing, with Trump wanting US control to safeguard national security and Beijing reluctant to approve a deal that looks like a US victory.
Oracle chairman ‘says SoftBank CEO likely to join TikTok board’
State-owned media outlets have attacked the transaction in recent commentaries. China Daily called it “dirty and unfair” and said it was “based on bullying and extortion” on Wednesday, while People’s Daily published an opinion piece on Tuesday in which the author said the goal of the forced sale was to seize control of an influential Chinese company and that Trump’s apparent step back was just a “big trap waiting for you to jump”.
The TikTok order has been delayed for a week to September 27, with the Commerce Department citing “recent positive developments” in talks over the deal with Oracle and Walmart.
TikTok on Wednesday asked a US judge to block the order, saying the restrictions “were not motivated by a genuine national security concern, but rather by political considerations relating to the upcoming general election”.
A California judge issued a preliminary injunction on Saturday temporarily stalling the ban on WeChat, hours before it was due to be implemented on Sunday, although the Commerce Department said on Monday it will challenge the court’s order.
Additional reporting by Orange Wang
