The U.S. and China were, and still are not the best of friends.

In much and every way, the two countries are dominant in the world. One from the West, and the other from the East. Each has a market that is difficult to breach by the other, but proven potential and alluring to whatever business is capable of penetrating.

One example of a company from China that is capable of entering the U.S. with relative ease, is Tiktok. The social media from ByteDance benefits largely from the many Americans that are young and active on the internet, who populate its platform with lots of creative and fun videos.

But the U.S. that has long accused China for spying its citizens through some of its multinational companies, is starting to take a bigger notice that TikTok despite being a young company, can also be used to spy on its citizens.

U.S. officials said that the app constitutes a national security risk because it could share millions of Americans' personal data with Chinese intelligence. The app has been under formal investigation because it collects large amounts of personal information on all its users and is legally bound to share that with authorities in Beijing if they demand it.

And here, starting the first day of August 2020, TikTok's days in the U.S. were numbered.

"As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States," said U.S. President Trump of the hugely popular social network, which his administration considers a national security risk because of its Chinese ownership.

Trump gave TikTok six weeks until mid-September to strike a deal and sell its U.S. operations to an American company, saying that it would be "out of business" otherwise.

"It's got to be an American company... it's got to be owned here," Trump said. "We don't want to have any problem with security."

"I set a date of around September 15, at which point it's going to be out of business in the United States," he said.

Trump also said that the U.S. government also wanted a financial benefit from the deal, saying that whatever the price is, "the United States should get a very large percentage of that price because we're making it possible."

And in any deal, Trump said that the sale of TikTok's U.S. business would have to result in a significant payout to the U.S. Treasury for initiating it.

"A very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States, because we're making it possible for this deal to happen," Trump said. "They don't have any rights unless we give it to them."

Trump then compared the government's demand for a piece of the TikTok pie, to a landlord demanding under-the-table "key money" from a new tenant.

"TikTok is a big success, but a big portion of it is in the country," he said. "I think it's very fair."

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was already in talks with Donald Trump, to buy TikTok’s American operations. It gained further traction after the company managed to lobby some of Trump's top advisers and Republican lawmakers.

In a statement on a blog post, Microsoft said that it would “move quickly” to pursue a deal with TikTok’s parent, Beijing-based ByteDance, aiming to finish it all up before the September 15 deadline Trump has given TikTok.

Microsoft will conduct “a complete security review” of the company, it said, and pledged to keep all American users’ data within the U.S. and sever any connections to any system that connect TikTok's American business to abroad.

If everything goes as what Trump has planned, the U.S. should be able to control much of the social media sphere, as well as others, on top of its existing prowess. For Microsoft, the acquisition would give it the ability to control one of the largest and most influential social networks in the world.

Microsoft in acquiring TikTok could also create a more meaningful competition for Facebook and Google. Snapchat and Twitter can also benefit from this.

But if not, and Trump goes forward with his plan to shut down TikTok's U.S. business, things could go a few different ways.

For example, the government will risk angering many young TikTok user base, and this can be a problem for the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. Shutting down TikTok in the U.S. could also force TikTok users to switch to competitors.

According to a White House top advisor, the push for TikTok to sell its U.S. business is a mean to punish China in the escalating tech war between Washington and Beijing.

The pressure for a sale of TikTok's U.S. and its international business, based in Los Angeles, left the company and ByteDance facing a very difficult situation. But at this time, ByteDance’s CEO Zhang Yiming said he disagreed with the order to sell its American operations and stressed that no decisions about TikTok’s fate had been made.

Zhang acknowledged the pressure and said to his staff, reported by Chinese media, that the company is working around-the-clock "for the best outcome."

"We have always been committed to ensuring user data security, as well as the platform neutrality and transparency," Zhang said. However, he said, the company faces "mounting complexities across the geopolitical landscape and significant external pressure."

He also said that TikTok must confront the challenge from the United States, though "without giving up exploring any possibilities."

“The attention of the outside world and rumors around TikTok might last for a while,” he added.

As for the Chinese government, China's Foreign Ministry pushed back, calling Washington hypocritical for demanding TikTok to be sold.

"The U.S. is using an abused concept of national security and, without providing any evidence, is making presumptions of guilt and issuing threats to relevant companies," said Wang Wenbin, a Chinese politician diplomat, and also the spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

"This goes against the principle of market economy and exposes the hypocrisy and typical double standards of the US in upholding so-called fairness and freedom," he added.

Chinese state media even labeled the U.S. as a "rogue country", and dubbed the potential sale of TikTok to Microsoft as "theft". A Chinese tabloid said that the U.S. in trying to acquire or ban TikTok is simply because it is a threat to American tech companies. The piece also mentioned similar moves by the U.S. to block Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei.

Some agencies said that Beijing could retaliate if a deal is sealed.