THE FORMER US treasury secretary who served under Donald Trump, Steve Mnuchin, has said he is preparing a buyout bid of social media platform TikTok.

TikTok is owned by Chinese technology giant ByteDance and alleged subservience to China’s ruling Communist Party has sparked national security concerns in the US.

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill that would force TikTok to divest from its parent company ByteDance or face a nationwide ban.

The bill which would force the sale of TikTok is expected to face a tougher challenge in the US Senate but the White House has indicated President Joe Biden would sign the bill into law if it reaches his desk.

China has sharply criticised the move, slamming what it called Washington’s “bandit” mentality and accusing US lawmakers of “unjustly suppressing foreign companies”.

Ex-Trump treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin yesterday said he is putting together a team of investors to buy TikTok from its Chinese owners ByteDance if the bill passes.

Mnuchin is an investment banker who led the Treasury Department throughout Trump’s presidency.

He told CNBC that when he was treasury secretary under Trump, he had Trump “sign an order that TikTok had to be sold”.

“I continue to believe that, and I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin told CNBC.

"It's a great business and I'm going to put together a group to buy TikTok," says Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "The issue is all about the technology. This needs to be controlled by U.S. businesses." pic.twitter.com/6yoLoL5bay

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) March 14, 2024

He added: “I understand the technology, it’s a great business, and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok.”

“This should be owned by US businesses. There’s no way that the Chinese would ever let a US company own something like this in China,” he said.

China has blocked Western online platforms such as Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) for years on its heavily-censored internet.

Mnuchin gave no further details on his plan, nor the investors he was trying to assemble.

He said “he’s spoken to a bunch of people” and that it would be a “combination of investors”.

Mnuchin also said “the issue is all about the technology” which “needs to be controlled by US businesses”.

ByteDance, which is privately run, has major US shareholders including investment giants Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and General Atlantic, as well as Silicon Valley stalwart Sequoia Capital.

Hedge funder Jeff Yass is also a major investor in ByteDance and is reported by US media as being among those lobbying against the bill.

In a turnaround from his earlier stance, Trump this week said he is against the bill, but denied accusations that he changed his tune because Yass is donating to his campaign.

Any divestment of TikTok, either as a whole or just its US operations, would be a huge challenge, notably in the courts, and a transaction that only the world’s richest companies could afford.

Any attempt by a US tech giant to buy TikTok, with its 170 million US users, would almost certainly face intense antitrust scrutiny.

‘Bandit logic’

China has sharply criticized the bill and gave no indication that it would allow a sale of TikTok from ByteDance.

“The US should truly respect the principles of a market economy and fair competition (and) stop unjustly suppressing foreign companies,” China’s commerce ministry spokesperson He Yadong said at a press conference.

“China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” he said.

At a separate press briefing, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the vote “runs contrary to the principles of fair competition and international economic and trade rules”.

“If so-called reasons of national security can be used to arbitrarily suppress excellent companies from other countries, then there is no fairness and justice at all,” Wang said.

“When someone sees a good thing another person has and tries to take it for themselves, this is entirely the logic of a bandit.”

TikTok has consistently denied that it is under the control of China’s Communist Party.

Its CEO Shou Zi Chew has urged TikTok users to speak out against the vote.

-With additional reporting from © AFP 2024