The President of the United States, Joe Biden, signed a law this Wednesday (24), approved the day before by the Senate, to provide military aid to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region (including Taiwan) and force the Chinese company ByteDance to sell the social network TikTok within a year so that the platform is not banned in the country.
The mega package foresees the allocation of US$60 billion in aid to Ukraine and US$26.4 billion to Israel.
“Today is a good day for the United States, a good day for Europe and a good day for world peace,” Biden told reporters after signing the law at the White House.
“In the next few hours, literally in the next few hours, we will begin sending air defense ammunition, artillery for rocket systems and armored vehicles to Ukraine,” the president promised.
Minutes later, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in a statement the shipment of the first weapons package, valued at US$1 billion, to Ukraine, which includes air defense missiles, armored vehicles, anti-tank weapons and various types of ammunition.
In response to the ultimatum to sell TikTok, China’s government reiterated a message from March in which it had accused the United States of adopting intimidation tactics instead of “competing fairly” and “never finding evidence that the TikTok threatens your national security.”
In a video posted on TikTok, the platform’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, said that the company will appeal in court against the United States government’s measure and is confident that it will emerge victorious.
“Don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere. The facts and the Constitution are on our side and we hope to win again,” he said.