Beijing sees TikTok as an extension of the party

The Chinese government is getting in on tech giant ByteDance, which owns TikTok. U.S. politicians now fear that China is slowly but surely usurping power over the video app. 

The deal was struck in secret. Not a word leaked to the public. Four months ago, the Chinese government got in on a subsidiary of Beijing tech giant ByteDance. The government acquired a one percent stake and was given a seat on the supervisory board. Only now has the deal become public - and it immediately caused unrest, especially in the US.

That's because Bytedance also owns the video app TikTok, which is now downloaded more often in America than Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook. So is China expanding its influence in the country with which it was until recently engaged in a bitter trade war?

At first glance, it all seems to concern only China itself. The subsidiary into which the state entered holds the licenses to operate Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and Toutiao, a news portal. Both services are available only in the People's Republic. But for many Americans, the deal confirms a long-held concern: that Beijing is slowly, step by step, taking over ByteDance - and thus also seizing control of TikTok.

source- https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article233227629/Peking-sieht-TikTok-als-eine-Erweiterung-der-Partei.html