A new law banning or forcing a sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations has escalated the tech war with China by taking direct aim at the country’s first mobile app to break through globally. Yet, so far, Beijing appears to be pulling its punches. Chinese officials have in the past described U.S. maneuvers against TikTok as an attempt to suppress a Chinese company and an example of American hypocrisy. Asked repeatedly about the new law this week, they passed on the opportunity to inveigh against Washington. Chinese officials “have previously made clear China’s principled position on the U.S. Congress’s passage of the bill on TikTok, which you may refer to,” a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. The following day, officials gave similar answers. On Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited China this week, said that TikTok didn’t come up in his conversations with Chinese officials. ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based owner, said on its Chinese news app Thursday that it wasn’t considering a sale. Chinese officials at the country’s main internet regulator have privately indicated to the company their preference is for the app to pull out of the U.S. if forced to do so, instead of selling its operations there, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Beijing hasn’t been shy about lashing out at the U.S. when it chooses to do so. The relatively muted response this week stands in contrast, in some ways, to China’s often forceful defense of another of its tech champions, Huawei Technologies.
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