United States lawmakers are in China on a rare visit as the two countries tussle over trade, the ownership of the TikTok social media platform and military dynamics in the South China Sea.
According to a US media pool report, the members of the US House of Representatives met on Sunday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and relayed that they hoped to “break the ice” as the superpowers try to make progress on stabilising ties.
The visit followed a call by the leaders of the two countries, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, on Friday. The two leaders spoke by phone, their first call in three months, but there was no announcement about the sale, ownership or algorithm of TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned social media app that has 170 million US users.
According to the White House on Saturday, an emerging deal would give US companies control over TikTok’s algorithm and US citizens would hold the majority of seats, six out of seven, on a board overseeing the app’s US operations.
The app’s algorithm controls what users see, and US officials have often warned that it is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities.
But Trump told reporters on Saturday evening that “great American patriots” were planning to buy the app, which was supposed to be banned in the US in January. The president has signed repeated orders to allow the app to continue working while his administration tries to reach a deal with its owner, China’s ByteDance, to sell its US operations.
“And they’re [the buyers] very smart technologically, and they will not let anything bad happen to TikTok,” Trump said.
Among the expected buyers is Oracle, a tech firm owned by Larry Ellison, one of the world’s wealthiest people and a Trump supporter.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News interview on Saturday that the Trump administration was “100 percent confident that a deal is done”.
“[Trump] recognised the need to protect Americans’ privacy and data while also keeping this app open,” Leavitt said, adding: “TikTok is a vital part of our democratic process,” and she anticipated the deal to be finalised in “the coming days”.
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