ByteDance retains TikTok US operations, Chinese media with state background says

China's ByteDance didn't sell the operation of TikTok in the United States, an individual media account founded by a senior at state news agency Xinhua said, citing a Chinese international politics professor.
The conclusion challenges the recent reports that a US consortium will take dominant control on the board of the video sharing application owned by ByteDance after the last Friday talk between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Niutanqin, a social media account founded by Liu Hong, current deputy editor-in-chief at Xinhua, wrote in an article that an entity that is wholly owned by ByteDance will continue to be responsible for the commercial operations including advertising, e-commerce and cross-border activities in the United States and the ownership will not change.
And the reported changes of ownership refer to another TikTok entity set up before to be responsible for data security of US users, Niutanqin wrote, adding that ByteDance will remain the largest shareholder, as too many new stakeholders were expected to be introduced.
Niutanqin cited an analysis of Shen Yi, Professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, who claimed to draw the conclusions after cross-checking various "authoritative sources," without specific details.
Moreover, China's ByteDance will continue to own the algorithms and only allow them to be licensed to TikTok's US entity, Niutanqin wrote, citing Shen. And it is based on a 2020 list by the Ministry of Commerce and in line with a statement by a Chinese official after the Madrid talk.
Thus, ByteDance will retain ownership of TikTok's algorithm intellectual property and will license it to the U.S. entity for data security and charge licensing fees, Niutanqin wrote, based on Shen's analysis.
The analysis also came as dozens of reports and rumours that Beijing plans to sacrifice ByteDance for benefits in other aspects in the trade talks with the US.
On Monday afternoon, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian repeated that China is happy to see Chinese enterprises reach solutions that comply with the country's laws and balance interests. Lin added that the US is expected to offer Chinese enterprises an open, fair and non-discriminatory business environment.
Earlier, a senior White House official said Americans will hold six out of seven board members for a new entity set up for the TikTok deal, and the Chinese parent will retain only one seat, adding that TikTok's algorithms in the US will be "outside of ByteDance's control."