Donald Trump announces deal with China on TikTok
Washington: US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that an agreement has been reached with China to allow TikTok to continue operating in the country.
“The big Trade Meeting in Europe between The United States of America, and China, has gone VERY WELL! It will be concluding shortly. A deal was also reached on a “certain” company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save. They will be very happy!” he posted.
Trump also revealed that he will be speaking to “President Xi on Friday,” adding that the “relationship remains a very strong one!!!”
Senior US and Chinese delegations held two days of discussions in Madrid to iron out bilateral trade issues.
The talks were led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the American side, and by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and top trade negotiator Li Chenggang on the Chinese side.
After Trump’s announcement, Bessent addressed the media in Madrid, confirming the TikTok arrangement.
“We have a framework for a TikTok deal. The two leaders, President Trump and party chair Xi, will speak on Friday to complete the deal. But we do have a framework for a deal with TikTok,” he revealed.
While refusing to publicly disclose the “commercial terms of the deal” between the two parties, he confirmed that “terms have been agreed upon”.
The US Trade Representative called the tentative agreement with China on TikTok “remarkable”.
“The fact is, we could take a very challenging and prickly issue like the TikTok divestment and come to an agreement, really, within a couple of days. There were months and weeks before this, but to be able to come, sit down quickly, identify the issues, narrow them down to a very granular spot, and be able to come to a conclusion subject to the leader’s approval. I mean, that is remarkable,” Greer added.
TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, faced a deadline of September 17 to divest its US operations or face a shutdown.
The Chinese side has yet to issue a statement on the TikTok deal.