The Chinese government has made investments in two of the nation’s most significant technology firms — ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns global video app TikTok, and Weibo, China’s version of Twitter — in a move apparently intended to bolster its sway over the nation’s flourishing technology sector. In April, ByteDance sold a 1% stake in its Chinese subsidiary, Beijing ByteDance Technology Co., to WangTouZhongWen (Beijing) Technology, a state-backed firm, according to public government records and the corporate information platform Qichacha. WangTouZhongWen is owned by three Chinese state entities, one of which is linked to a fund backed by the...