Does the Chinese government own a small percentage of ByteDance?

No. As is required under local law, in order to operate certain ByteDance news and information products that are offered exclusively in China, an entity affiliated with the Chinese government collectively owns 1% of a ByteDance subsidiary that holds media licenses for those services. TikTok, which is not available for download in mainland China, is not among these entities. This subsidiary has no ownership, visibility, or input into ByteDance’s global operations, including TikTok. Employees of this subsidiary are restricted from access to U.S. user databases, with no exceptions.