Trump Gives TikTok an Extension in the US

Trump as signed the order to delay TikTok's divestment

Now that Donald Trump is the 47th President of the United States, what is he going to do?

He signed a flurry of executive orders, one of which was delaying the order that TikTok either divest or shut down. The delay gives the company 75 days to figure out a way to address the app's privacy concerns.

The day before on Sunday, TikTok did "go dark", but went back online a day later, much to the relief of American users and influencers who depend on the app either for making money or watching mindless videos.

Trump suggests TikTok be sold to the US

In the meantime Trump is making some strange statements about TikTok.

"I may not do the deal. I may do the deal. TikTok is worthless, worthless. If I don't approve it, it has to close. I learned that from the people that own it," Trump said Monday.

"With TikTok, I have the right to either sell it or close it, and we'll make that determination... We may have to get an approval from China too, I'm not sure, but I'm sure they'll approve it," he added.

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, and it has said that the app is not for sale, and the Chinese government has also stated it is not for sale either.

Trump later suggested the US could by a 50 percent share of TikTok.

Which part of "not for sale" does he not understand?

Chew seated next to National Security Director

Then he pulled out the "T" word -- tariffs, saying in part: "if we wanted to make a deal with TikTok, and it was a good deal, and China wouldn't approve it, then I think ultimately they'd approve it because we'd put tariffs on China."

"Maybe, I'm not saying I would, but you certainly could do that. And if we said, well, 'you're not going to approve it', then that's a certain hostility, and we'll put tariffs of 25, 30, 40, 50 percent, even 100 percent."

The strongman threatening tariffs, which is curious considering when he was President in 2020, he raised the idea of banning TikTok if ByteDance didn't sell it and issued an executive order to that effect; it was later thrown out by a federal district court.

But Trump has had a change of heart. Why? Because one of his big Republican donors, billionaire Jeff Yass, is a leading investor in ByteDance. 

Is that how TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew got a seat at the inauguration -- right next to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard?

This is what the next four years will be -- full of contradictions and big talk. Everything's up for a deal.

Chinese Billionaires Drop Off Rich List

Zhong of Nongfu Spring is China's wealthiest man

China's Covid-19 restrictions which severely slowed down the economy, and the depreciation of the yuan led to 229 people losing their billionaire status, according to a new rich list compiled by Hurun Report.

They accounted for more than half of the 445 people worldwide who lost their status as US-dollar billionaires, and as a result dropped off the Hurun Global Rich List. This is the biggest decline in Chinese billionaires since the list was first published in 2013.

However at the same time, China added the largest number of new billionaires at 69, based on their net worth as of January 16 this year.

Tencent's Ma has a net worth of US$39 billion

Topping the list is Zhong Shanshan, 69, founder of water bottle brand Nongfu Spring with US$69 billion, down 4 percent year on year. He is also the world's 15th richest person.

Next is Pony Ma, 52, of Tencent with US$39 billion, up two spots from last year despite losing 25 percent of his net worth. Ma is followed closely by TikTok parent company Bytedance's Zhang Yiming, 40, whose wealth shrank by 31 percent to US$37 billion. 

Alibaba founder Jack Ma Yun dropped from fifth to ninth place, as his net worth fell 32 percent to US$25 billion, and makes him the 52nd wealthiest person in the world.

Li Ka-shing continues to be Hong Kong's wealthiest person and 39th richest in the world at US$31 billion, a drop of 6 percent from a year ago.

Zhang still US$37B rich despite TikTok bans

"Interest rate hikes, the appreciation of the US dollar, the popping of a Covid-19-driven tech bubble and the continued impact of the Russia-Ukraine war have all combined to hurt stock markets," said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report, a consultancy.

Nevertheless, China's economy expanded 3 percent in 2022, one of its slowest rates of growth in decades because of the severe zero-Covid-19 strategy that caused multiple city lockdowns and manufacturing suspensions that have resulted in multinational companies looking elsewhere to ease supply chain issues.

However, Hoogewerf seems to think Chinese entrepreneurs will look abroad for expansion. "Chinese entrepreneurs will actively look to expand abroad from this year as they have a global perspective," he says. "The reopening gives them opportunities to copy their growth model [in China] to other countries."

Really?

Hoogewerf says China businesses will go abroad

China limits how much money people and presumably companies can take out of the country, and the central government has a more isolationist focus than wanting to go overseas. Those expansion days of snapping up foreign brands are over.

To think they can replicate their success at home to other countries is naive thinking, as business and labour regulations are very different.

Other countries' governments may not want Chinese companies coming to their shores either, with TikTok being the most recent example of being banned from civil servants' devices.

Canada Bans Tik Tok on Govt Phones

Canada follows the EU and US in Tik Tok ban

The Canadian government has followed the United States in removing and blocking the video-sharing platform Tik Tok from all government-issued smartphones due to security reasons from February 28.

In an email sent to Global Affairs employees said the Chief Information Officer made the decision following a review which found that Tik Tok's data collection methods could lead to cyber attacks.

"The Government of Canada continuously works to ensure the cyber security of our networks by identifying threats and vulnerabilities, including those on social media platforms," the email said.

Parent company ByteDance stores data in China

"The government will continue to monitor the situation and will work with partners to keep the information on our systems and networks secure."

But why would anyone install Tik Tok on a government-issued phone in the first place? How many would have done so?

If anything Tik Tok is a time suck -- getting viewers to watch endless 30-second videos about a whole range of subjects, mostly mindless. And it is this monitoring of users' watching habits and their information is the data that Tik Tok's parent company ByteDance wants, and that it is stored in China.

Nevertheless hopefully this will be a wake-up call to people using Tik Tok to understand they have no control over where their information is extracted from and kept, and perhaps they should think twice about having Tik Tok on their phones.

Canada is following the European Commission and European Council, several American state governments, and most US federal government employees in barring the app on government-issued phones.

Trudeau says this ban could be the first step

While the US Congress is debating a bill which would ban Tik Tok across the country, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau hasn't said whether Canada would do the same.

"This may be the first step, it may be the only step we need to take, but every step of the way we're going to be making sure we're keeping Canadians safe," he said. 

"Certainly, I suspect that as government takes the significant step of telling all federal employees they can no longer use Tik Tok on their work phones, many Canadians... will reflect on the security of their own data and perhaps make choices in consequence."

So does this mean Trudeau is finally coming around to possibility of Chinese interference in Canada and that it must be stopped in every possible way?