President Trump and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, are expected to speak on Friday by phone about the hugely popular video app TikTok. The two are expected to confirm the outline of a deal that would separate the app from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to avoid a ban in the United States.
“We have a deal on TikTok. I’ve reached a deal with China. I’m going to speak to President Xi on Friday to confirm everything up,” Mr. Trump told reporters outside the White House on Tuesday.
TikTok’s future has been in limbo in the United States since January, when a federal law took effect requiring the company to find a non-Chinese owner or face a ban in the United States. The law was intended to address national security concerns that the app’s ownership could give Beijing a channel to spread propaganda or to collect sensitive data about Americans. Mr. Trump has extended the deadline four times.
Details of the deal have not been announced, but ByteDance has for months been in talks to spin out the app’s American operations into a new company, and to bring in new U.S. investors, like the software giant Oracle, to dilute its Chinese ownership. The list of other potential investors has been in flux, two people familiar with the talks said.
Mr. Trump on Thursday added another detail: The United States would be receiving a “tremendous fee” for putting the deal together. If that occurs, it would be the latest example of the government’s incursion into corporate deal making. In recent months, the Trump administration has negotiated and obtained a 10 percent stake in Intel, and a “golden share” in U.S. Steel as part of its sale to Nippon Steel.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent first announced that the United States had a “framework” for a deal to keep TikTok operational in the United States at a news conference in Madrid on Monday.
Chinese officials had previously vowed to oppose a forced sale of TikTok, and in 2020 it amended its export control list to include technology like algorithms and source codes.
China decided to reach an agreement with the United States on TikTok because “this consensus serves the interests of both sides,” Li Chenggang, China’s vice minister of commerce, said in Madrid on Monday after meeting with American officials, according to a readout published in Chinese state media.
On Tuesday, one day before a deadline for TikTok to separate from ByteDance, Mr. Trump issued an extension — the fourth this year — to mid-December. On Friday, it could prove to be the final one.
Lauren Hirsch and Meaghan Tobin contributed reporting.
Emmett Lindner is a business reporter for The Times.
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