The acquisition of TikTok is believed to be politicized to serve different strategic goals of the US and Chinese administrations.

Normally, companies like ByteDance, Microsoft, Walmart or Oracle are still considered kings in their fields.

These giants are entangled in a growing tit-for-tat confrontation between the US and China over the resale of TikTok operations in the US.

President Donald Trump in early August asked ByteDance to sell all TikTok operations in the US to a US company on the grounds that TikTok is a national security threat because of its ties to China.

For weeks, China repeatedly criticized President Trump's request, but remained silent about what they would do with TikTok.

On August 28, Beijing surprised all parties by updating its export control regulations, including some key TikTok technologies.

Now, a blockbuster deal waiting to be completed will become a lot more complicated, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

Two groups competing for the right to acquire TikTok operations in the US, one of which is the Microsoft-Walmart alliance and the other led by Oracle, are discussing how to explain new export control regulations that China has just enacted.

"Obviously this deal and the high-tech industry in general are being politicized and we have no way out of it," said Scott Kennedy, China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Samm Sacks, an expert on network policy at the New America policy institute, said the Trump administration is likely to act in response to the latest move from China and this will put American companies in action.

"We are working on new regulations announced by the Chinese authorities on August 28," Erich Andersen, an adviser to ByteDance, said in a statement.

In Washington on August 31, the measures to control China's export of new technology were described by many as a "poison" for the TikTok acquisition.

The Trump administration recently imposed sanctions on dozens of Chinese companies on allegations of security threats or human rights violations.

Peter Navarro, a hard-line White House trade advisor on China, said yesterday in an interview that "it's important" that Americans don't use apps built by China by Beijing.

"This is really the policy stance behind our pressuring TikTok, WeChat, and many other companies that follow, because China fundamentally controls technology and has influence around the world," he said.

According to an analysis by the US-China Business Council, new Chinese export control regulations impact two technologies that are critical to TikTok, which analyzes user data to provide suggestions.

To transfer these technologies to partners outside of China, the exporter needs to obtain a license from their provincial commerce department, the process can take up to 45 working days.

China introduced new regulations on controlling technology exports in the midst of the sale of TikTok about to come to an end after weeks of negotiations.

Walmart then affiliated with Microsoft, while Alphabet left the game.

According to Matt Perault, associate professor at Duke University Science and Technology Policy Center, the US and China have politicized other deals in the past, including Qualcomm's acquisition of a company that makes a substance.

Perault said the TikTok deal was particularly difficult because the US was on the eve of the presidential election and Trump saw restraining China as a key goal in his re-election strategy.

"Politicization is having an immediate impact," Perault commented, adding that the degree of politicization of the TikTok deal is now "unprecedented".