Microsoft has spent decades building goodwill with Beijing. That could help its bid to buy TikTok’s operations in the United States and a few other countries — that is, unless deteriorating US-China relations get in the way.

Microsoft has emerged as the leading candidate to save TikTok from President Donald Trump’s threat to ban the app unless it finds an American buyer. The app is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. A deal would give Microsoft ownership and operation of TikTok services in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Unlike other big US tech companies, Microsoft has major clout in China, and its products have a significant presence there, CNN Business reporter Sherisse Pham.

The backstory

Microsoft has been in China since 1992 and employs 6,000 people in the country. Its software is used by the Chinese government and companies, and LinkedIn is a popular social media platform for Chinese professionals. Bing is the only foreign search engine with any market share.

The Washington-based company also boasts an A-list alumni network in China, thanks to the hugely influential Microsoft Research Lab Asia, or MSRA.

Many founders and senior executives at companies such as Alibaba, smartphone maker Xiaomi and e-commerce upstart Pinduoduo got their start at Microsoft and were trained at MSRA. Even Zhang Yiming, the founder and CEO of ByteDance, briefly worked at Microsoft before reportedly leaving out of boredom.

Some Trump administration officials are suspicious that Microsoft is too cozy with Beijing. Microsoft-owned products such as Bing and Skype have enabled Chinese surveillance and censorship, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said in an interview on CNN Monday.

Tensions over technology keep rising. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday urged American companies to remove “untrusted” Chinese-owned technology from their digital networks, detailing a broad plan aimed at dramatically curbing China’s reach.