Politically, TikTok is now in a tougher spot. Its executives had been discussing divesting from ByteDance to resolve US national security concerns, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. But China this week said it would firmly oppose a forced sale.
TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi, confronted with an unforgiving, distrustful Congress, tried to give answers in his testimony Thursday that avoided offending either the US government or China.
But his evasiveness left Congress unsatisfied, with representatives hungrier than ever to punish TikTok for ties to its parent company ByteDance Ltd., based in Beijing. And he didn’t bring his company any closer to a resolution.
