US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have reportedly made significant progress toward an agreement over TikTok, and are scheduled to meet face-to-face in about six weeks in South Korea to continue discussions on trade, illicit drugs, and Russia’s war in Ukraine. The two leaders held their first phone call in three months, during which the TikTok issue was a central topic.
Trump said during a press briefing that Xi “approved the TikTok deal,” and that a formal signing might still take place.He also confirmed that, beyond TikTok, the call touched on other contentious issues including trade relations, drug enforcement, and Beijing’s views on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The deal under discussion would require Beijing’s final approval of a framework that both sides agreed upon earlier this week. That framework is critical for Trump to keep TikTok operational in the US, especially in light of Congressional demands that the app be sold or face a US ban by January 2025.
Other major elements of the potential deal include how much control ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, will retain—especially over the app’s algorithm—and the US side’s demand for “very tight control” over key aspects of the operation. Trump also floated the possibility of the US government taking a fee for facilitating the deal, though he admitted that component is not fully negotiated.
While China’s state media and official statements did not confirm a formal agreement, they emphasized that the Chinese government “respects the wishes of the company in question” and underscored calls for non-discriminatory treatment of Chinese firms.
The US media and analysts raised important questions that remain unresolved: What will be the ownership structure? How much control will China retain behind the scenes? Will Congress approve the resulting deal? And how will sensitive functions like algorithm control be handled?
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