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President Donald Trump said tariffs in China could depend on TikTok's ownership agreement, as he signed an executive order to keep the popular short-form online video platform in the US for 75 days.
Just a few hours after him appointment on MondayTrump has pushed back a deadline for Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its shares in the app or face a ban in the country.
Trump said the US “should be entitled to half TikTok“if the app continues to operate beyond that restriction and “of course” he can impose tariffs on China if it rejects the agreement, saying it is “an act of hostility”.
He said prices could reach 100 percent. “Eventually (Beijing) will agree because we will impose tariffs on China,” Trump he said at the signing of the order. I'm not saying I do, but you certainly can.
China is one of three countries Trump has threatened to hit with tariffs on his first day in office. Monday, he said may impose fees of 25 percent Canada and Mexico from February 1.
But he did not impose 60 percent tariffs on Chinese imports as he promised during the campaign, in what would mark a new stage in the trade war with Beijing during his first term.
The move to stop paying tariffs against China appeared to provide a deal for TikTok. Trump spoke with Chinese leader Xi Jinping Friday and said he had raised the TikTok issue, although Beijing did not confirm the discussion.
TikTok was temporarily unavailable to about 170mn US users at midnight on Sunday after a deadline under the “sink or bust” rule, but they resumed service late.
The executive order said the companies that distribute and host TikTok – including Apple and Google and cloud provider Oracle – will not be held liable for violating the law during the 75-day extension. Under the law, service providers risk a fine of $5,000 per user.
But Tom Cotton, the Republican head of the Senate intelligence committee, warned the companies on Sunday that they risked being “ruined” by the breach.
TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew took offense after Trump said during his campaign that he hoped to “save” the app.
He chewed and went to be ordained alongside billions of technology Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and sat next to Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence, drawing criticism from some observers.
Many American politicians and security officials believe that the Chinese government can use TikTok to access the information of Americans, which can facilitate espionage, and use the app's algorithm to spread lies. TikTok denies that Beijing has any control over the app.
TikTok also says that hacking was technologically impossible within the legal time frame. Beijing has indicated its opposition to the sale.
However, Trump suggested that if the app will continue to work, the US should be paid “half the value of TikTok”, adding: “If I don't do this it's worthless.” If I make a deal, it's worth a billion dollars.
Last week, the Financial Times report that Chinese officials are discussing using Musk, someone close to Trump, as a broker in a potential sale of TikTok's US operations. Musk on Monday met with Chinese vice president Han Zheng, who attended Trump's inauguration.
He too he shouted TikTok's presence in the US – while western platforms such as his social media site X is blocked in China – as “unbalanced”, adding “something that needs to change”.
Beijing did not immediately respond to Trump's comments threatening tariffs if it does not agree to the TikTok deal.
On Monday, China's foreign ministry said any decision on TikTok's ownership should be taken “in accordance with market principles and determined by the companies themselves”.
Additional reporting by Aime Williams in Washington