China's new export rules for technologies like artificial intelligence is likely to come in way of the survival of TikTok in the United States where it is struggling to continue its operations after an ultimatum by President Donald Trump to the company to stop operations in America.
South China Morning Post reported on Sunday that the new rules introduced by Beijing on several technologies including laser and drones will require Chinese compes to take government approval for their export, which could affect TikTok's parent company ByteDance.
"ByteDance has a number of cutting-edge technologies in artificial intelligence and other fields, and some technologies may be covered by the adjusted list," Cui Fan, a professor of international trade at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, told Xinhua on Saturday.
Amid rising tension with the United States, the video-sharing app has been struggling to reach an agreement with an American buyer after US President Donald Trump gave an ultimatum to sell its operations in the US.
On Friday, the Chinese Commerce ministry had said that 23 areas of innovation - ranging from space materials to 3D printing, encryption and large-scale high-speed wind tunnel design - had been added to the restricted export list.
Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, said: "By doing this type of export list, potentially this is a way for the Chinese government to get involved and offer protection to Chinese compes.
"I do think the Chinese digital platforms have a massive pool of data that they have access to and they can do a lot of things to, but I personally am not convinced that the artificial intelligence is uniquely advanced to the point where [non-Chinese] compes ... would be hurt not getting access to it," Alex Capri, a visiting senior fellow at the National University of Singapore said.
ByteDance did not respond to SCMP's requests for comment in the matter.
( With inputs from ANI )
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