TMTPOST -- China is considering an option to avoid the upcoming TikTok ban if the popular short video application fails to block a law that forces its Chinese owner ByteDance Ltd. to divest it, according to a recent report.

Credit：Xinhua News Agency

Chinese officials are weighing a potential option to sell TikTok’s U.S. operation to Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk should ByteDance will not succeed in fending off an impending ban, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

While Chinese officials prefer that TikTok remains under the ownership of ByteDance, but senior officials had already begun to discuss contingency plans for TikTok, one of which involves Musk, according to the report. It noted the Chinese government is interested in a potential high-profile with Musk for the billionaire, as one of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s closest allies, is deemed to be a key role in the ultimate fate of TikTok. One scenario that has been debated by Beijing is that Musk’s social media X, formerly Twitter, would take control of TikTok operation in the United States and run the businesses together.

It’s unclear whether TikTok U.S. business would be sold through a competitive process or an arrangement by the Chinese government, the report said. It added that Musk has a positive reputation among many ByteDance employees in China, though the company would prefer to keep fighting in the leagl battle instead of sell TikTok and cede control for good. It was reported another option for TikTok to sidestep the ban is to move its existing U.S. customers over to a similar application with different branding.

Musk is Trump’s big financial backer that plowed more than $250 million to send the former president return to the White House, campaign finance reports showed in December. Trump said last month Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy were appointed to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to "slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies."

The reported Beijing’s deliberations, which are still preliminary, came as the U.S. Supreme Court appears ready to uphold the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (the “Act”) that forces ByteDance sales by January 19.

Hearing the over two-hour oral arguments in Washington on Friday, a majority of justices suggested they see U.S. national security concerns as overriding the free speech interests of the companies and content creators, reported Bloomberg, adding that several justices cast the law as being focused not on freedom of speech, but on ByteDance. CNN concluded most of the Supreme court appeared likely to uphold the Act, citing many of the justices in the arguments view the law not as one that primarily implicates the First Amendment but rather as an effort to regulate the potential foreign control of an app used by 170 million Americans.

The U.S. Congress has passed a bill and U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law that could ban TikTok in the country in April. The Act gives TikTok owner ByteDance 270 days to divest its U.S. assets including TikTok, otherwise the Chinese tech giant would face a ban on its app being available in U.S. app stores or on U.S. web hosting services. It also grants the White House the authority to prolong this deadline by another 90 days if the president deems that progress has been made towards a sale.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on December 6 ruled against TikTok’s request for pause of the ban that set a deadline of January 19 for a sale of ByteDance. TikTok the same day requested the Supreme Court to review the recent ruling of an appeals court that upheld an act threatening a U.S. ban.

If the Surpreme Court upholds the Act, it is Trump that could act as TikTok’s last-resort for survival. Trump last month sent one of his most clearest and the strongest signals to date that he opposes any TikTok ban in U.S. "We did go on TikTok and we had a great response with billions of views," Trump told a crowd of supporters on December 22. Trump added, "They brought me a chart ... and as I looked at it, I said, maybe we got to keep this sucker around for a little while."

In a 25-page amicus brief released on December 27, John Sauer, Trump’s lawyer who is also the president-elect’s pick for U.S. solicitor general, has request the Supreme Court to delay the possible TikTok ban. “President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute,” wrote Sauer.“Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case, thus permitting President Trump’s incoming Administration the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case.”