China state firms invest in TikTok sibling, Weibo chat app

TALI ARBEL and ZEN SOO
Associated Press

China appears to be taking greater control of ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns global video app TikTok, and Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. State-backed firms took stakes in Chinese subsidiaries of the two companies this April and last year. Beijing has been clamping down on its technology sector with investigations and new rules. Its newly reported involvement with ByteDance raised concerns in the U.S. about the effect on TikTok, which has millions of U.S. users. A ByteDance spokesperson said the Chinese subsidiary in question doesn’t own TikTok but declined to answer other questions.