The United States and China have reached a “framework for a TikTok deal” about the future of the video-sharing app in the U.S., the two countries announced Monday.
The deal was announced after a trade meeting in Madrid between a Chinese delegation and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who told reporters that the administration had reached a “framework” for a deal with China to sell TikTok to an American buyer.
Bessent did not offer further details on the terms of the deal, but told reporters, “We had very good discussions.” He said more trade negotiations are scheduled to take place in a month at a different location.
President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping are due to speak Friday to finalize the deal.
Trump all but confirmed the news himself on his social media platform, Truth Social, where he wrote the trade meeting in Europe between the U.S. and China went “VERY WELL!” adding that “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!”
Citing concerns about data privacy and the potential for espionage, Congress voted in April 2024 to ban TikTok if its Chinese parent company ByteDance did not sell to an American buyer. As a result, TikTok went offline briefly in the U.S. this year ahead of Trump taking office. Trump has repeatedly extended the deadline imposed by Congress for ByteDance to divest or face a ban. This is the Trump administration’s second attempt to close a deal, after saying in March that the two countries had reached a deal. That one, however, fell through. While the first Trump administration declared that TikTok “continues to threaten the national security,” the new Trump administration has embraced the platform, even launching a White House account on the app.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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