特朗普逼售TikTok索提成

US TikTok move 'mafia' deal

特朗普逼售TikTok索提成

TikTok's roller-coaster ride in the US continued on Monday as President Donald Trump said he would approve the video-sharing app's sale to Microsoft only if the US government gets a cut, a condition that one expert called a "mafia" deal.

8月3日，視頻分享應用TikTok在美國的命運仍在呈過山車式發展，美國總統特朗普表示，他將同意TikTok出售給微軟的交易，但前提是美國政府能得到“提成”，有專家稱美政府此舉是“黑手黨式的”交易。

The president also gave Microsoft and TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, a deadline of Sept 15 to complete the deal, or the app will be banned in the US.

特朗普還給微軟以及TikTok的中國母公司字節跳動劃定了9月15日這一完成交易的最後期限，否則TikTok在美國將被封禁。

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular media briefing in Beijing on Tuesday that the US treatment of TikTok is "outright bullying", and the US only uses a "national security risk" as an excuse to suppress Chinese tech enterprises.

外交部發言人汪文斌8月4日在北京的一場例行發佈會上表示，美方對TikTok的行動是赤裸裸的霸凌行徑，“國家安全風險”只是美國打壓中國科技企業的理由。

The legal basis of Trump's requirement that some of the money from the deal go to the US Treasury was immediately questioned by experts.

特朗普關於美財政部從TikTok交易中抽取佣金的要求的法律基礎立即受到專家們的質疑。

"This is quite unusual; this is out of the norm," said Gene Kimmelman, former chief counsel for the US Department of Justice's Antitrust Division.

美國司法部反壟斷局前首席法律顧問吉恩·金梅爾曼表示：“這相當不尋常，不合常規”。

Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a think tank based in Washington, DC, said Trump's "extortion threat" is a "mafia business model".

華盛頓智庫卡託研究所的高級研究員朱利安·桑切斯說，特朗普的“勒索威脅”完全是“黑手黨式的行爲”。