China today called on the US to stop “unjustified attacks” against TikTok app, following the US government’s request to its Chinese parent company to sell all shares of the app, warning that otherwise it would be banned from US soil for national security reasons.

According to the Wall Street Journal and other American newspapers, the White House issued an ultimatum: if TikTok remains owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, it will be banned in the US.

It is about for the most dramatic development in a series of measures taken recently by US officials and lawmakers, who are concerned that TikTok will give information about American users of the app to the Chinese government. The app has more than 100 million users in the US.

It is also the first time that TikTok has been threatened with a ban in the US during the presidency of Joe Biden. Former President Donald Trump had also tried to ban the app in 2020, but his move was blocked by US courts.

Brooke Oberwetter, a TikTok spokeswoman, said the company was recently notified by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) that the app’s Chinese owners must sell their shares. Otherwise, TikTok may be banned in the US.

Washington “has so far presented no evidence that TikTok threatens US national security,” responded Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The US should stop to spread false information on data security issues, stop unwarranted attacks (against TikTok) and provide an open, fair, unbiased and non-discriminatory trading environment” to foreign companies, he added.

The White House has already banned federal employees from having the app on their cellphones. Similar steps have been taken by the European Commission and the Government of Canada for their own employees.