Part 4/10:

From Beijing’s perspective, the reaction appears measured and approving, with official statements from the Chinese foreign ministry being boilerplate. Chinese state media has signaled that the deal has Beijing’s backing, noting that it complies with Chinese law and that the algorithm remains the property of ByteDance.

A pro-Beijing academic cited in media reports emphasized that the algorithm will not be transferred wholly but only licensed and replicated on U.S. servers. The Chinese government’s stance seems to be that there is no risk of intellectual property theft, as ByteDance remains the dominant shareholder and TikTok's ownership is explicitly maintained.