China Vows To Retaliate Against U.S. For Using ‘Smash And Grab’ Tactics Against TikTok

China’s state media said on Monday that the country would not accept the “theft” of a Chinese technology company, adding that it has plenty of ways to respond if U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration follows through with its “planned smash and grab.”

“Washington is well aware that Beijing will be cautious about retaliating like-for-like as it values foreign investment in China, and the sizable U.S. investment in China is of more importance to the Chinese economy than the much smaller and shrinking Chinese investment is to the U.S. economy,” said China Daily.

The state-run newspaper did not elaborate further on what form the retaliation is likely to take. Instead, recent comments from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were characterized as “inviting potential U.S. purchasers to participate in an officially sanctioned ‘steal’ of Chinese technology.”

On Sunday, Pompeo had told Fox News that Trump was going to take unspecified action against TikTok, the popular short-video app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, in the coming days because the platform sends the personal information of Americans to China’s government.

“These Chinese software companies doing business in the United States,” Pompeo said, “are feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party, their national security apparatus. Could be [users’] facial recognition pattern, it could be information about their residence, their phone numbers, their friends, who they’re connected to.”

Trump said on Monday that Microsoft can buy TikTok, but the acquisition would have to be completed by September 15 and added that any acquisition will have to involve paying a “significant amount of money” to the federal government.

Microsoft said earlier that it was moving quickly in its talks with ByteDance to acquire the Chinese company’s operations in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

As tensions between Washington and Beijing continue to rise, Chinese technology companies are increasingly finding themselves caught between policymakers in both countries.

In a letter circulating on Chinese social media, Zhang Yiming, the billionaire founder behind the social media app and ByteDance, said he disagrees with Washington’s push for a sale and is trying to allay American security concerns over the platform.

TikTok has been an internet sensation ever since it was launched in 2017, reaching about 800 million global monthly active users. Forbes estimates Zhang’s net worth at $16.2 billion, making him the 16th richest person in China on the Forbes real-time ranking of billionaires.