The government of China would rather shut down TikTok in the U.S. than allow it to be sold to a U.S. company.
“Beijing opposes a forced sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations by its Chinese owner ByteDance, and would prefer to see the short video app shut down in the United States,” Reuters reports. “Chinese officials believe a forced sale would make both ByteDance and China appear weak in the face of pressure from Washington.”
President Donald Trump has called for the platform to cease U.S. operations as of Sept. 15. Microsoft, Oracle, and Walmart have expressed interest in purchasing the American operations of the company that made and operates the popular video sharing app.
“I’m not extending deadlines, no. It’s September 15th. There’ll be no extension of the TikTok deadline,” Barron’s reports the president said Thursday.
It’s unclear if the app would just shut down next Tuesday. The U.S. government says there are major security implications with the app.