Microsoft's TikTok bid spotlights Windows maker's history with China

Microsoft Corp has emerged as the most likely buyer of the U.S. operations of TikTok, the popular Chinese short-video app that U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to effectively ban on national security grounds.

Its flagship Windows operating system is widely used, though revenue has long been crimped by piracy. In recent years the firm has pushed its Azure cloud computing product, launched in 2013 via a partnership with local data service company 21Vianet.China's cyber-security law limits Microsoft to providing Azure's software and services while 21Vianet runs associated data centres.

Founded in 1998 with help from renowned Taiwanese-American AI scientist Kaifu Lee - who went on to lead Google's China office - the lab has produced alumni who went on to become executives at TikTok owner ByteDance, Baidu, Xiaomi Corp and Chinese facial recognition unicorns.Bing and LinkedIn in China appear similar to their global counterparts but Microsoft censors search results and content the Chinese government considers sensitive.

Software development website GitHub, which Microsoft purchased in 2019, is also accessible from China. The site, a coding repository, has been used by activists in China to preserve internet content before authorities censor the source.Microsoft has bemoaned rampant piracy of Windows in China for decades and has occasionally filed lawsuits and complaints even against state-backed companies to address its concerns.

Microsoft eventually released a"China Government" edition of Windows 10 following a joint venture formed in 2015 with state-owned China Electronics Technology Corp.Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has spoken in mostly positive terms about China in recent years. In November, he held a public meeting with Peng Liyuan, wife of President Xi Jinping.

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