Tik Tok deal is on top of agenda together with trade for leaders’ first public call in three months due on Friday
- TikTok has been instructed to shut down for American users by Congress.
- TikTok agreement to sell assets of platform to US owners.
- US TikTok to continue using ByteDance’s algorithm: sources
WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will negotiate an agreement on Friday that will assist in keeping the video-sharing app TikTok operational in the US and reduce tensions between two superpowers engaged in a trade standoff.
The deal is atop the agenda together with trade for the leaders’ first reported call in three months, scheduled for Friday morning, said US officials. But China did not confirm the plans for the call.
Trump and Xi’s move to stabilize relations follows as the two governments have been negotiating the possibility of an in-person summit between Xi and Trump at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in South Korea between October 30 and November 1, Reuters has reported.
Beijing’s signature was among the obstacles Trump had to overcome to maintain TikTok in operation. Congress had compelled the app to close for US users by January 2025 if its US assets were not divested by Chinese owner ByteDance.
Trump has refused to implement the law while his administration seeks a new owner, but also because he fears a ban on the app would enrage TikTok’s massive user base and interfere with political communications.
I love TikTok; it helped elect me,” Trump declared in a press conference on Thursday. “TikTok is of tremendous value. We have that value in our hand because we’re the ones that have to approve it”.
There are key questions surrounding the deal. It’s unclear the exact ownership composition of the company, how much control China will keep or whether Congress will sign off.
The transaction would shift TikTok’s US assets to US owners from ByteDance, Reuters stated. Sources of the transaction explained that US TikTok would continue to utilize ByteDance’s algorithm.
Trump and Xi want TikTok victory to shatter US-China impasse
That agreement is concerning to lawmakers worried that Beijing might be able to spy on Americans or conduct influence operations with the app. China has claimed there is no proof of a national security risk from the app.
Complex relationships
Trump framed his foreign policy stance as one of peace-making and deal-making. Relations continue to be frosty between the world’s two largest economies.
“We’re very close to a deal,” Trump told reporters on Thursday, in what was clearly a nod to broader trade negotiations. “We can do an extension with China, but it’s an extension on the same terms that we have presently, which are very good terms.”.
Other major concerns are competition between the two on semiconductors and other cutting-edge technologies. The US desires increased Chinese buys of US-harvested soybeans and Boeing aircraft.
The US is also insisting that China suppress the export of fentanyl-related chemicals, a prime driver of US overdose fatalities. Beijing has blamed Washington for manipulating the issue.
Recent statistics indicate slowing economies in both China and the US.
Since returning to office in January, Trump dramatically increased tariffs across the board and targeted China’s export-led economy with particularly penal rates. That served to provoke China into retaliation. Tariff rates on both sides of the Pacific climbed to triple-digit percentages in April.
A series of piecemeal agreements from May stalled the tit-for-tat tariff war between the nations.
They also reserved matters that caused China strangling rare-earth magnets Washington requires to produce high-tech devices. Trump had denied Beijing access to semiconductor design software, jet engines and certain chemicals.
“China’s skillful application of sticks (rare earths) and carrots (TikTok) has swung it heavily in their direction,” said Scott Kennedy, director of the Chinese Business and Economics program at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank.
Tariffs, a duty on US importers, have been a central pillar of Trump’s economic program. He’s pushed them to their highest level in close to a century.
The Republican president has framed tariffs as a panacea that can restore lost factory jobs, reduce perennial federal government deficits, right perceived trade imbalances and make foreign nations submit to Washington’s dictates.
In spite of the tariffs, China is still the US’ third-largest trading partner and the source of its biggest bilateral goods trade deficit.
Trump has threatened but so far held back punitive tariffs on Chinese exports involving the nation’s imports of Russian oil.
Concurrently, regional concerns are piling up over Taiwan and the South China Sea, dangerous flashpoints that find it difficult to draw as much attention in Washington as the Russia-Ukraine and Gaza conflicts.
“Head-of-state diplomacy takes an irreplaceable position in offering strategic leadership for China-US relations,” said Liu Pengyu, the Chinese embassy’s spokesperson in Washington.
As an initial gesture of goodwill before the call, China allowed Wells Fargo banker Chenyue Mao to leave after being barred from re-entering the US for a few months.
