WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - A bipartisan group U.S.

lawmakers are introducing legislation on Tuesday that would give

China's ByteDance about six months to popular short video app

TikTok or face a U.S. ban, congressional aides told reporters.

Representative Mike Gallagher, the chair of the House select

China committee and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top

Democrat are introducing legislation joined by more than a dozen

other lawmakers to address national security concerns posed by

Chinese ownership of the app.

The bill would give ByteDance 165 days to divest TikTok,

which is used by more than 170 million Americans, or it would be

unlawful for app stores operated by Apple ( AAPL ), Google

and others to offer TikTok or to provide web hosting

services to ByteDance-controlled applications.

The bill would give the president new powers to designate

apps of concerns and face bans or restrictions absent

divestiture.

Concerns about Chinese-owned TikTok last year sparked

efforts in Congress to boost powers to address the popular short

video sharing app or potentially ban it, but those prior bills

have stalled.