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TikTok’s US lawsuit gets Chinese state media support as ByteDance looks to avoid ban of its flagship app
- Xinhua, China Daily and others ran articles on Wednesday supporting TikTok and ByteDance’s lawsuit against the US government
- TikTok was caught off guard by a fresh effort to ban the app or force a sale, which rapidly gained momentum this year and was signed in to law last month
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Coco Fengin Beijing
Chinese state media outlets showed support for TikTok in a number of articles on Wednesday after the short video app operator and its Beijing-based owner ByteDance filed a lawsuit against the US government in a bid to overturn a law requiring the divestiture of the app’s US operations or face a ban.
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An article from Xinhua News Agency, directly controlled by China’s State Council, argued that the US legislation signed into law at the end of April represents “suppression of the popular app” based on “unfounded national security concerns due to its Chinese ownership”.
Echoing arguments that TikTok made in its legal challenge, Xinhua said the law “is raising concerns about constitutional rights and the principle of fair competition being violated”.
China Daily, which is operated by the Communist Party, used a recent move supportive of electric vehicle maker Tesla to argue that China is more open to foreign business than the US.
China may soon allow Tesla to test robotaxis in the country, China Daily reported on Wednesday. The move “again demonstrates the Chinese government’s positive stance on opening further” to foreign business, while the US is showing signs of “rising trade protectionism”, the newspaper said.
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Chinastarmarket.cn, an online publication affiliated with the Shanghai government, also praised TikTok’s determination to overturn a law that some see as an existential threat to the app, as the US is its largest market. The challenge is “a fight with its back to the river”, the news outlet wrote, using a Chinese idiom that describes a make-or-break situation.
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