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，视频分享应用TikTok在美国的命运仍在呈过山车式发展，美国总统特朗普表示，他将同意TikTok出售给微软的交易，但前提是美国政府能得到“提成”，有专家称美政府此举是“黑手党式的”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.

特朗普还给微软以及TikTok的中国母公司字节跳动划定了9月15日这一完成交易的最后期限，否则TikTok在美国将被封禁。

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.

外交部发言人汪文斌8月4日在北京的一场例行发布会上表示，美方对TikTok的行动是赤裸裸的霸凌行径，“国家安全风险”只是美国打压中国科技企业的理由。

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.

特朗普关于美财政部从TikTok交易中抽取佣金的要求的法律基础立即受到专家们的质疑。

"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.

美国司法部反垄断局前首席法律顾问吉恩·金梅尔曼表示：“这相当不寻常，不合常规”。

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".

华盛顿智库卡托研究所的高级研究员朱利安·桑切斯说，特朗普的“勒索威胁”完全是“黑手党式的行为”。