In their first phone call since June, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping haggled on Friday over the final details of a long-anticipated TikTok deal. Although the Chinese ambassador to the United States framed the conversation as “pragmatic, positive and constructive,” neither side walked away with a clear breakthrough.
Neither Beijing nor Washington has released further details on the proposed deal. But according to the Wall Street Journal, the arrangement under discussion would see Chinese company ByteDance divest control of TikTok to a new U.S. entity created to operate the app. This consortium of new investors and existing backers would own around 80 percent of the platform, with ByteDance ownership falling below 20 percent to comply with U.S. law. People familiar with the talks told the Journal that it could take weeks for legal concerns to be addressed.
Such a TikTok deal would mark a win for China hawks in the U.S. Congress and the Trump administration, who have expressed fear that the app’s user data could be accessed by the Chinese government, allowing Beijing to monitor Americans’ activity and conduct influence operations. Where Trump himself stands on the issue is more complicated, as he initially pushed to ban the app in the United States, only to then use the app to connect with younger voters during his reelection campaign.
Beijing has also tried to frame the TikTok deal as a win for Xi. Even though China would be losing control over TikTok, experts suggest that Xi would be gaining leverage for future deals with Washington, specifically over Trump’s tariff war and Chinese tech ambitions; China and the United States are negotiating a broader trade agreement focused on curbing fentanyl production and reducing high levies.
Read more in today’s World Brief: Trump, Xi Inch Closer to a TikTok Deal.
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