New Chinese technology trade restrictions could harm imminent TikTok sale

AppleInsider

While a sale of TikTok's US operations may be imminent, the Chinese restrictions on artificial intelligence technology exports may be a stumbling block for negotiations.

Revealed by China's ministries managing commerce, science, and technology on Friday, the restrictions limit the kinds of technologies that can be exported from China without requiring a license from authorities. The list of restricted technologies cover data-processing technologies including text analysis, content recommendations, speech modeling, and voice recognition.

According to Chinese government trade advisor Cui Fan speaking to the country's official Xinhua News Agency on Saturday, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, TikTok owner ByteDance needs to examine the new export list and "seriously and cautiously" consider if a license is required for technologies being sold, and whether to halt ">negotiations entirely.

In a statement on Sunday, ByteDance said it was aware of the updated restrictions. The company says that it will "strictly comply" with any regulations for technology exports.

The Commerce Ministry last made changes to its technology export list in 2008, with it suggesting the adjustment was important due to the fast development of technology and China's "continuous improvement" in industrial competitiveness. The list also includes restrictions relating to laser technologies, cryptography, chip design, and other important areas of technological progress.

The restriction changes arrive at a time when ByteDance is trying to secure a deal to divest its holdings in its US operations of TikTok, ahead of a presidential executive order that threatens to ban transactions with the company.

Negotiations are being made between ByteDance and a number of suitors, including Microsoft, Walmart, and Oracle. The deal was valued at one point at $30 billion.

An announcement for a sale is anticipated to arrive soon. According to a CNBC report on Monday, the announcement could take place as soon as Tuesday.

Kuyangkoh

Really?? Your technology are either copied or stolen.....as the old man says”COME ON MAN”

foregoneconclusion

I literally LOL'd when I read that China did this. That's some masterful trolling. 

wood1208

Chinese(goverment) every possible way wants/steals from everyone but don't want to give.. Can't blame, seems culture.

Rayz2016

You mention this NOW??

pulseimages

Not surprising considering the culture. 

appleexpat

Good for China. US also implements similar laws to block sales of US companies fo companies from overseas and from China as well. Kudos to China on this one..

appleexpat

Kuyangkoh said:

Really?? Your technology are either copied or stolen.....as the old man says”COME ON MAN”

Apple does have a s history of stolen technology,employees and lawsuits against them
for similar issues. Kettle calling pot black on this one..

tmay

appleexpat said:

Kuyangkoh said:

Really?? Your technology are either copied or stolen.....as the old man says”COME ON MAN”

Apple does have a s history of stolen technology,employees and lawsuits against them
for similar issues. Kettle calling pot black on this one..

Really?

Kettle calling pot black?

Did Apple do it like China did to Nortel, and how much did Huawei benefit from that?

https://globalnews.ca/news/7275588/inside-the-chinese-military-attack-on-nortel/

"In 2004 Nortel cyber-security advisor Brian Shields investigated a serious breach in the telecom giant’s network. At the time Nortel’s fibre optics equipment was the world’s envy, with 70 per cent of all internet traffic running on Canadian technology. 

And someone wanted Nortel’s secrets.

Shields found that a computer in Shanghai had hacked into the email account of an Ottawa-based Nortel executive. Using passwords stolen from the executive the intruder downloaded more than 450 documents from “Live Link” — a Nortel server used to warehouse sensitive intellectual property.

Shields soon found the hacker controlled the accounts of at least seven Nortel executives. This was no random cybercriminal. But who was it?

Shields examined the numerical internet addresses of computers extracting Nortel data and found that they were clustered into a tiny pinprick of cyberspace. He was stunned because it looked like a room filled with web servers. Whoever was behind these hackers, Shields believed, seemed to control China’s internet."

...

"So the systematic hacking continued, Shields says. And as a result, Shields says, in 2009 — after getting massively underbid on a series of contracts by China’s state-champion company Huawei — Nortel went bankrupt.

In the end, Shields determined China’s government gained complete control of Nortel’s internal systems. After ten years of cyberattacks they could see everything Nortel was doing, he says. The infiltration was so insidious, Shields says, that technicians in China could send encrypted packages of stolen Nortel data to Shanghai and Beijing, by sending Internet commands to a “backdoor” buried in a Nortel computer."

Better that the West disengage from China, and the sooner the better, but if China wants to do the same, sure, why not.

SpamSandwich

Time for TikTok to die a natural death.

magman1979

Fuck China

GeorgeBMac

Kuyangkoh said:

Really?? Your technology are either copied or stolen.....as the old man says”COME ON MAN”

LOL... Yeh, that's the fact free right wing talking point....   The same nonsense was said about Japan 40 years ago as they out competed our basic industries and ran them out of business.   I guess it makes the losers feel better...

But here, it sounds like China is beginning to protect its IP from being stolen by the U.S. in the same way Trumpers accuse China of stealing ours....

As mentioned above:  This is some masterful trolling....

60 years ago Republicans ended the our cold war with China and broke down the walls between the U.S. and China.   And mutually beneficial relations were established where we exchanged ideas, products and research.   But, now that the U.S. has unilaterally decided to restart its cold war and build walls we should expect to see the response to our rather misguided actions.   But, as we see here, we only get outrage from the the Trumpers that China would respond in kind to our attacks.   Sorry Trumpers, but China is done being the victim of your bullying.   It can and will hit back.   Are you ready?   Are you prepared?   How many U.S. jobs are you willing to sacrifice?

Beats

Kuyangkoh said:

Really?? Your technology are either copied or stolen.....as the old man says”COME ON MAN”

The iKnockoff defenders who claim Android copied nothing will be mad.

wood1208 said:

Chinese(goverment) every possible way wants/steals from everyone but don't want to give.. Can't blame, seems culture.

Don't want to give what though? Tik Tok invented nothing nor is it an innovation. Apps like Dubsmash, Vine, Music.aly already did the same exact crap.

tzeshan

Kuyangkoh said:

Really?? Your technology are either copied or stolen.....as the old man says”COME ON MAN”

Let me tell you where your logic went wrong. If this technology is copied, then US has this technology too. Then Microsoft and Walmart have nothing to worry. Microsoft engineers can simply implement it to Tiktok after purchase.