Trump tariffs thwart TikTok takeover as China digs in heels
(2025/04/07)
- Reference: 1744045633
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/04/07/trump_tariff_tiktok_takeover/
- Source link:
World War Fee A deal to sell off TikTok's US operations to White House-approved owners appears to have hit a tariff-shaped roadblock, with the Chinese government signalling it won't allow the move.
On Friday, President Trump [1]posted on his Truth Social site that the deadline for an agreement regarding TikTok's fate has been extended by another 75 days following [2]the announcement of new trade tariffs imposed on all imports to the US last week.
"We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs," he wrote.
[3]
The deadline for some arrangement over TikTok to be hammered out or it would face an outright ban in America was set for April 5 after being [4]extended once by Trump in January already.
[5]
[6]
A deal was said to be in the pipeline and just hours away from being announced, but the Chinese government, which would have to give its approval for any sell-off of all or part of the social media platform, is understood to want negotiations on tariffs before it will consider granting its assent.
China also hit back at the US with its own retaliatory tariffs and new [7]restrictions on so-called rare earth minerals, some of which are key ingredients in components used for various tech industries.
[8]
Trump has hinted he'd cut tariffs if Beijing lets owner ByteDance sell the video sharing app, according to [9]The Financial Times .
The Trump administration was considering a proposal from various interested parties to acquire the biz, with private equity firms such as Blackstone and Silver Lake taking 50 percent and Oracle supplying the infrastructure, while existing investors would have another 30 percent and ByteDance would continue to hold the rest.
[10]Asian tech players react to US tariffs with delays, doubts, deal-making
[11]China hits back at America with retaliatory tariffs, export controls on rare earth minerals
[12]System builders say server prices set to spike as Trump plays customs cowboy
[13]Americans set to pay more on all imports: Trump activates blanket tariffs
It was even suggested last week that online retailing giant [14]Amazon was preparing to throw its hat into the ring with an offer for TikTok.
It is roughly a year since the US House of Representatives passed the [15]act of legislation that compels ByteDance to divest itself of TikTok's US operations or face being banned from operating in the country.
The reasons given for this were the usual hackneyed excuses about national security, with TikTok apparently considered a danger as it might be used for surveillance of US users (oh, the irony) and also to covertly try and influence them.
[16]
Even more ironic, the original idea to ban the video sharing platform came from President Trump himself [17]during his first term in office , yet he opposed the move once the legislation was finally passed, fearing that [18]TikTok's removal might hand even more power to Facebook , which he's made no secret of disliking.
Now it seems that the biggest barrier to America getting a version of TikTok that is "freed" from Chinese control is Trump's own tariff scheme, unless the President can pull out of the bag something to please the Beijing government before June 19, which is when the next 75-day extension is set to expire. ®
Reader alert: [19]President has now threatened further tariffs on China unless Beijing scraps a retaliatory levy
Get our [20]Tech Resources
[1] https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114280893859636366
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/us_tariffs_liberation_day_announcement/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z_RLA7VhSZ2ySD3sB9Og_AAAA1U&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/21/trump_tiktok_ban_pause/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z_RLA7VhSZ2ySD3sB9Og_AAAA1U&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z_RLA7VhSZ2ySD3sB9Og_AAAA1U&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/china_hits_back_at_trump/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z_RLA7VhSZ2ySD3sB9Og_AAAA1U&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.ft.com/content/a11c6f9b-bc58-4d2c-afa9-63d5f38d3575
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/07/asia_tech_news_in_brief/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/china_hits_back_at_trump/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/trump_tariffs_servers/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/us_tariffs_liberation_day_announcement/
[14] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/business/media/amazon-tiktok-bid.html
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/14/us_congress_passes_tiktok_ban/
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z_RLA7VhSZ2ySD3sB9Og_AAAA1U&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/05/china_slams_tiktok_trump_plan/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/09/trump_who_tried_kicking_tiktok/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/07/trump_china_tariffs/
[20] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
On Friday, President Trump [1]posted on his Truth Social site that the deadline for an agreement regarding TikTok's fate has been extended by another 75 days following [2]the announcement of new trade tariffs imposed on all imports to the US last week.
"We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs," he wrote.
[3]
The deadline for some arrangement over TikTok to be hammered out or it would face an outright ban in America was set for April 5 after being [4]extended once by Trump in January already.
[5]
[6]
A deal was said to be in the pipeline and just hours away from being announced, but the Chinese government, which would have to give its approval for any sell-off of all or part of the social media platform, is understood to want negotiations on tariffs before it will consider granting its assent.
China also hit back at the US with its own retaliatory tariffs and new [7]restrictions on so-called rare earth minerals, some of which are key ingredients in components used for various tech industries.
[8]
Trump has hinted he'd cut tariffs if Beijing lets owner ByteDance sell the video sharing app, according to [9]The Financial Times .
The Trump administration was considering a proposal from various interested parties to acquire the biz, with private equity firms such as Blackstone and Silver Lake taking 50 percent and Oracle supplying the infrastructure, while existing investors would have another 30 percent and ByteDance would continue to hold the rest.
[10]Asian tech players react to US tariffs with delays, doubts, deal-making
[11]China hits back at America with retaliatory tariffs, export controls on rare earth minerals
[12]System builders say server prices set to spike as Trump plays customs cowboy
[13]Americans set to pay more on all imports: Trump activates blanket tariffs
It was even suggested last week that online retailing giant [14]Amazon was preparing to throw its hat into the ring with an offer for TikTok.
It is roughly a year since the US House of Representatives passed the [15]act of legislation that compels ByteDance to divest itself of TikTok's US operations or face being banned from operating in the country.
The reasons given for this were the usual hackneyed excuses about national security, with TikTok apparently considered a danger as it might be used for surveillance of US users (oh, the irony) and also to covertly try and influence them.
[16]
Even more ironic, the original idea to ban the video sharing platform came from President Trump himself [17]during his first term in office , yet he opposed the move once the legislation was finally passed, fearing that [18]TikTok's removal might hand even more power to Facebook , which he's made no secret of disliking.
Now it seems that the biggest barrier to America getting a version of TikTok that is "freed" from Chinese control is Trump's own tariff scheme, unless the President can pull out of the bag something to please the Beijing government before June 19, which is when the next 75-day extension is set to expire. ®
Reader alert: [19]President has now threatened further tariffs on China unless Beijing scraps a retaliatory levy
Get our [20]Tech Resources
[1] https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114280893859636366
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/us_tariffs_liberation_day_announcement/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z_RLA7VhSZ2ySD3sB9Og_AAAA1U&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/21/trump_tiktok_ban_pause/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z_RLA7VhSZ2ySD3sB9Og_AAAA1U&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z_RLA7VhSZ2ySD3sB9Og_AAAA1U&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/china_hits_back_at_trump/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z_RLA7VhSZ2ySD3sB9Og_AAAA1U&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.ft.com/content/a11c6f9b-bc58-4d2c-afa9-63d5f38d3575
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/07/asia_tech_news_in_brief/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/china_hits_back_at_trump/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/trump_tariffs_servers/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/us_tariffs_liberation_day_announcement/
[14] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/business/media/amazon-tiktok-bid.html
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/14/us_congress_passes_tiktok_ban/
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z_RLA7VhSZ2ySD3sB9Og_AAAA1U&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/05/china_slams_tiktok_trump_plan/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/09/trump_who_tried_kicking_tiktok/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/07/trump_china_tariffs/
[20] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
trevorde
In these situations, what would Hitler do?
cornetman
Invade Poland?
Excused Boots
Sounds like a good plan, after all, what could possibly go wrong?
Now this is what I don’t get, legally it is against the law to facilitate access to TikTok in the US, that was what was passed by your Congress and signed into law by the then President. Now as I understand it, your current President, via the AG, has ‘pinky promised’ that nobody will actually be prosecuted for breaking said law. Now if you were Apple or Google, distributing the means (ie having them on your respective stores) would you necessarily trust this, as it sounds to me to be as reliable as a tissue-paper condom?
Or is it just me?
Dan 55
that was what was passed by your Congress and signed into law by the then President
Not to mention upheld by the Supreme Court. But that was in the before times, now all anyone has to do is kiss The Don's ring.
Invade Gaza
Empire of the Pussycat
Anonymous Coward
Go back to art collage? What would Jesus do?
> Trump has hinted he'd cut tariffs if Beijing lets owner ByteDance sell the video sharing app, according to The Financial Times.
See, the problem here is that, once the sale is done and control over the relevant resources has been transferred, there is nothing preventing Trump from re-instating the tariffs a short time later. Nevermind "hint", he can outright promise not to, but he's already shown to be untrustworthy on that, going back on treaties he had signed himself as soon as conditions changed. He doesn't even need an excuse, he can just make something up. So the class of deals where you give something now in return for conditions for the future can't be easily done.
That's the core problem of breaking trust: the economics. Even if you disregard ethics, there's a whole class of extremely useful transactions that you just can't do with an untrustworthy partner, or you have to burden them with so many safeguards as to make them inefficient. It's as if someone removed a bunch of opcodes from your CPU, forcing the compiler to implement expensive emulation or fail entirely on some operations. This is going to be a big part of the Trump economic crisis.