Skip to main content

Trump wants the Treasury to get a substantial cut of any TikTok acquisition. China's state media says that would be 'open robbery.'

* President Trump said on Monday TikTok has a deadline of September 15 to sell its US business or it will be "out of business in the United States." * Trump also said a "substantial portion" of the any sale of the app should go to the US Treasury. * He wasn't clear whether that cut should come from the purchasing company or ByteDance, TikTok's parent company. * Chinese state media has reacted furiously to the remarks, with one editor saying any such cut would constitute "open robbery" and one newspaper describing the prospect as a "smash and grab." * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. China's state media has reacted furiously to Trump's comments that the US Treasury should get a cut of any sale of TikTok to an American company. President Trump on Monday announced not only that TikTok has a deadline to sell off its US business, but he also expects the government to receive a slice of any deal. In a tweet Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the state-run Global Times, said it constituted "open robbery." "This is an open robbery. The world is watching and God is watching that how President Trump is turning the once great America into a rogue country," he wrote. TikTok, the short-form app owned by Chinese parent firm ByteDance, has had a turbulent five days, during which Trump threatened to ban the app altogether, then appeared to soften his stance to allow a potential sell-off of TikTok's US business to a US bidder. Microsoft confirmed on Sunday that it was in talks to acquire parts of TikTok's business, and that CEO Satya Nadella had spoken directly to Trump. Trump said of the call with Nadella  on Monday: "I suggested that he can go ahead, he can try. We set a date — I set a date — of around September 15, at which point it [TikTok] is going to be out of business in the United States. But if somebody, whether it's Microsoft or somebody else, buys it, that'll be interesting." Trump then said he had stipulated to Nadella that if a deal goes through he wants the US government to get a cut. "I did say that if you buy it, whatever the price is that goes to whoever owns it — because I guess it's China, essentially [...] I said a very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States, because we're making it possible for this deal to happen," said Trump. The China Daily, owned by the Communist Party of China's publicity department, wrote in response: "China will by no means accept the 'theft' of a Chinese technology company, and it has plenty of ways to respond if the administration carries out its planned smash and grab." Trump's explanation for why the US should get a large chunk of the deal was vague, and he compared the arrangement to a tenant paying a landlord. "Right now they don't have any rights unless we give it to them, so if we're going to give them the rights it has to come into this country, it's a little bit like the landlord-tenant — without a lease the tenant has nothing. So they pay what's called 'key money' or they pay something. But the United States should be reimbursed or should be paid a substantial amount of money because without the United States they don't have anything." Trump has given TikTok until September 15 to sell its U.S. operations pic.twitter.com/0Ap9QS45xx — Bloomberg QuickTake (@QuickTake) August 3, 2020   In a later press briefing on Monday, as reported by CNN, the president was asked whether the money should come from the purchaser (e.g. Microsoft) or from TikTok parent ByteDance. The president didn't seem clear on which side of the acquisition the money would come from. "Whether it's Microsoft or somebody else, or if it's the Chinese — what the price is, the United States could — should get a very large percentage of that price. Because we're making it possible," he said. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment on Trump's remarks when contacted by Business Insider. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: We tested a machine that brews beer at the push of a button
https://bit.ly/39RMk3K

Popular posts from this blog

Bill Gates says the world would need as many as 14 billion doses of a coronavirus vaccine to stop the virus

* The world could need as many as 14 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Bill Gates said on Thursday in a blog post about the race to develop a way to make people immune to the disease. * "We need to make billions of doses, we need to get them out to every part of the world, and we need all of this to happen as quickly as possible," Gates said. * Gates said he had his eyes on eight to 10 promising candidates, adding that healthcare workers and people in low-income countries should be first in line once we find one that works. * While potential vaccines are progressing with historic speed, they're still months, or even years away, and the biggest challenge lies ahead in proving whether they are safe and effective in humans. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Bill Gates believes we may eventually need to produce as many as 14 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines globally and that we're anywhere from nine months to two years away from making tha...
Read more

The 11 most important details we already know about the PlayStation 5, Sony's next-generation video game console set to arrive this year

* The PlayStation 5, Sony's next-generation game console that's deep in production, is scheduled to launch during the 2020 holiday season. * As you might expect, the PlayStation 5 is promised to be more powerful than the existing PlayStation 4 — and we've slowly been learning more about the next-gen console's new features since it was first revealed. * So far, Sony has offered a first glimpse at the new console via its new DualSense gamepad, and a tech demo highlighted the technical prowess of the new machine. * Here's everything we know so far about Sony's next-generation PlayStation console. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The PlayStation 5 is almost here. Sony's next-generation PlayStation game console is scheduled to arrive this holiday season, but we already know plenty of details about it right now: how powerful it is, its main features, and we've even gotten a good look at its new gamepad.  Here everything we kno...
Read more

Tokyo installed see-through public toilets in a park to let people inspect their cleanliness before using them, at which point the glass turns opaque

* Two see-through bathrooms have been installed in public parks in Tokyo. * They are made from "smart glass" designed so people can see how clean they are inside before using them. The glass turns opaque when the bathroom is locked and in use. * The stalls are part of a project that is redoing 17 of the city's public bathrooms with different designers to make them more accessible and appealing. * The goal is to fight assumptions that public toilets are "are dark, dirty, smelly, and scary," said the nonprofit foundation behind the project. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Tokyo has installed two see-through bathroom facilities in public parks, allowing people to see how clean they are before deciding to use them, at which point they turn opaque. The bathrooms are made of colored "smart glass," which turns opaque when the stalls are locked, said Shigeru Ban, the architect behind the designs. You can see how it works her...
Read more