Re:House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner...
by lupire on Thursday March 14, 2024 @10:01AM
(#39704123)
This is true economically, but the unelected authoritarian Chinese Communist Party still has control over content and communications in those companies and their products.
Specifically relevant. Chinese Communist Party allows content on TikTok in US that is not allowed on TikTok in China.
Re:House passes bill to force TikTok sale from Chinese owner...
by aragonite on Thursday March 14, 2024 @10:24AM
(#39704426)
That's a matter of compliance with local censorship laws. American social media companies are obligated to do that when operating abroad, not just in China. YouTube just blocked a Canadian video at the request of the Indian government, for example.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/india-fifth-estate-video-stor...
> In an email to CBC on Wednesday, YouTube said it had received an order from India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block access to the video of the story from its website.
> YouTube confirmed to CBC News Wednesday afternoon that "the content has now been blocked from view" on the India YouTube country site. While the content is restricted in India, the video is still available everywhere else on YouTube.
Apple, Oracle, Amazon, GE, Micron, Intel, Dell, Samsung, Kingston, LG, Seagate, Inventec ... Not a single one of these is a joint venture. They are all wholly foreign-owned enterprises (WFOEs) [1][2]
According to the Department of Commerce,
> A large majority of new foreign investments in China are WFOEs, rather than JVs. As Chinese legal entities, WFOEs experience greater independence than ROs, are allowed exclusive control over carrying out business activities while abiding by Chinese law and are granted intellectual and technological rights. (https://www.export.gov/apex/article2?id=China-Establishing-a...)
Also (https://arc-group.com/china-company-setup/):
> WFOE refers to a limited liability company that is 100% invested, owned by foreign investors, and independently operated. Almost 60% of foreign-owned companies are WFOEs, making it the most adopted business type. Famous multinational companies such as Apple, Amazon, Oracle, and General Electric are all examples of WFOEs.
[1] https://www.ydylcn.com/skwx_ydyl/competitiveReportDetail?Sit... (The link is pre-2020, when the new Foreign Investment Law abolished the category but reduced the need for JVs even more [3])
[2] https://www.uschina.org/sites/default/files/wfoe-fact-sheet-...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Investment_Law_of_the_...