EVERYTHING WITHIN THE STATE, NOTHING OUTSIDE THE STATE, NOTHING AGAINST THE STATE: Lying Outlaw Slaver
Beijing is publicizing its philosophy of how tech firms like TikTok must aid China’s rise.
Much of TikTok’s last year has been characterized by efforts to show it’s keeping a safe distance from the Chinese Communist Party, despite being owned by Chinese social media firm ByteDance. The latest iteration of that is
TikTok’s deal with Oracle that will reportedly
set up a new US entity to house the short video app, with the US software giant taking a minority stake and managing user data. But an “opinion” issued by the Communist Party,
and publicized this week, might make it hard for TikTok to argue it’s fine for it to continue to be largely owned by ByteDance.
The proposed deal’s structure is already shaped by Beijing’s refusal to allow the US alone to determine TikTok’s fate. China made an outright sale difficult by imposing
export controls on algorithms such as those used in the app. Following that, the Party this week spelled out its philosophy that the private sector and entrepreneurs must align ever more closely with its goals of advancing China’s development and “rejuvenating” the Chinese nation.
The decree lists several approaches for the Party to improve its influence over the private sector, including strengthening ideological and political guidance for entrepreneurs so they will be “politically sensible,” arming them with
Xi Jinping Thought (a political doctrine developed by the Chinese president for consolidating the Party’s power), and building a team of “high-quality” entrepreneurs whom the Party can rely on “at critical moments.”
www.iphonetricks.org
