The increasingly popular social media application TikTok has a concerning relationship with the Chinese state. That link became ever the more concerning today, when reports began circulating of a brand new partnership between the company that owns TikTok, ByteDance, and the government of China.

ByteDance owns the video-sharing app TikTok, and has established a joint venture with a Chinese state media group, official registration documents show.

"The joint venture will focus on partnership in the digital rights of short videos," a ByteDance spokeswoman told Reuters in response to inquiries about the deal:

ByteDance, which is one of China's fastest-growing startups, has formed a series of partnerships with state media organizations in order to feed its leading news aggregator platform, Jinri Toutiao. Under the latest deal, Beijing Liangzi Yuedong Technology Co Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ByteDance, will own 49% of the new company, Pengpai Audiovisual Technology (Jinan) Co Ltd, with Shanghai Dongfang Newspaper Co Ltd holding the remaining 51% majority stake, the documents from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System showed. Shandong-based Pengpai Audiovisual was established on Dec. 10 with a registered capital of 10 million yuan, according to the documents. Pengpai is the Chinese name of ThePaper.cn, an online newspaper published by Shanghai Dongfang.

ByteDance unit establishes venture with Chinese state media firm [reuters.com]