Washington (AFP)

Donald Trump sowed doubt on Monday on the agreement reached for the famous TikTok application, insisting that he would not validate a transaction that would leave the Chinese parent company ByteDance in the majority of the new entity.

If Oracle and Walmart "don't take full control (of the new group), then we won't approve the deal," the US president told Fox News as confusion reigns over who the Americans or the Chinese hold in fine the majority.

TikTok, accused by Washington of spying on behalf of Beijing, has been under threat of a ban in the United States since the summer, where it nevertheless has 100 million users.

In the name of national security, the host of the White House demands that it pass under the American flag, otherwise it will no longer be possible to download it in the United States on September 27.

The app, which is very popular with young people, confirmed a plan on Saturday that it would create a new company involving Oracle as a technology partner in the United States and Walmart as a business partner.

But the project has yet to be finalized by the companies and, above all, approved by the national security committee which examines foreign investments (Cfius) and depends on the Treasury.

- Valuable algorithm -

Called TikTok Global, the new company would be based in the United States and would hire 25,000 people, Oracle and Walmart said this weekend, which could respectively buy 12.5% ​​and 7.5% of TikTok's shares.

The objective is to introduce the new group to the stock market within a year in order to ultimately dilute the Chinese shareholding.

If this project were to succeed, it would bring a significant advantage to the US tax authorities, according to Oracle and Walmart.

TikTok Global is expected to pay "more than $ 5 billion in new taxes to the US Treasury," they said.

But on Monday, China came to add a new episode to the TikTok saga.

ByteDance said in a social media statement that TikTok Global plans to launch a "small round of pre-IPO funding", after which it would become an 80% owned subsidiary of ByteDance.

Information denied by an Oracle spokesperson.

“When TikTok Global is established, Oracle / Walmart will make their investment and shares of TikTok Global will be distributed to their owners, Americans will have a majority and ByteDance will have no ownership in TikTok Global,” he said.

Oracle and Walmart "have a partnership" for TikTok.

"They will buy it", "they will have total control", also assured Donald Trump.

"They are going to hold the majority stake," he continued.

The US president also stressed that "everything will be transferred to the cloud created by Oracle" and "everything will be completely controlled by Oracle".

An element that is not likely to reassure Beijing, in a race with the United States for technological domination.

Donald Trump says that thanks to TikTok, Beijing was able to collect a lot of data on users.

But ByteDance is under pressure in China not to give in to American demands.

He thus took care to declare Monday that the current plan "does not involve the transfer of any algorithm and technology".

While Oracle has the power to verify TikTok's source code in the United States, ByteDance said posting the source code is a way for multinationals to dispel local data security concerns.

China had already reacted strongly to threats to ban downloads from TikTok and WeChat, denouncing on Saturday "the intimidation" of the United States and by establishing a mechanism allowing it to restrict the activities of foreign companies.

Against a "list of untrusted entities" - whose names have not been made public - Beijing, for example, provides for potential sanctions ranging from fines to restriction of activities or entry of equipment and personnel into China .

© 2020 AFP