Trump, Xi Discuss TikTok Deal in Call
Udumbara
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President Donald Trump and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping began talks on Sept. 19 about a deal that would allow China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American buyer.
A readout of the call published by Chinese state-run media Xinhua said that the leaders discussed several other issues, including trade.
On TikTok, Xinhua reported that the position of the Chinese regime is that companies can conduct “commercial negotiations based on market rules and reach solutions that comply with Chinese laws and regulations and balance interests.” It did not include details of a deal.
Chinese media reported that the call began around 8:12 p.m. in Beijing, which is 12 hours ahead of Washington.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that, after two days of talks, a framework for a deal had been reached, in large part thanks to Trump calling in to lay out terms.
“Without his leadership and the leverage he provides, we would not have been able to conclude the deal today.”
Bessent told reporters on Sept. 15 that the Chinese came with an “aggressive” list of asks, including significant trade and tech concessions. He also said that they were firm on needing to retain “Chinese characteristics” of TikTok in the event of a sale.
“They’re interested in Chinese characteristics of the app, which they think are soft power. We don’t care about Chinese characteristics. We care about national security,” Bessent told reporters.
“We are not willing to sacrifice national security for a social media app.”
Congress last year delivered legislation that would prohibit foreign adversary control of apps in the United States. President Joe Biden signed the legislation in time for the deadline for ByteDance to divest of TikTok at the end of his term.
ByteDance and TikTok sued, and a federal court paused the deadline to give Trump, as the incoming president, time to decide how his administration would handle the issue.
Trump has already delayed the divestiture deadline several times, including this week amid talks of a deal, as ByteDance has said Chinese law will not allow for a sale.
Chinese authorities had updated export control laws to cover recommendation algorithms such as the one used by TikTok amid U.S. federal government scrutiny over the app, giving Beijing control over potential sales of such code.
“We have a deal on TikTok. ... We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it,” Trump said at a press conference on Sept. 16.
Questions arose over whether Chinese entities would retain a stake in the company, and whether ByteDance would retain control of TikTok’s algorithm, which Chinese negotiators had said in Madrid that they wanted to license to the U.S. buyer.
Chinese trade negotiator Wang Jingtao had told reporters that the parties had reached a consensus regarding licensing TikTok’s algorithm and other intellectual property rights.
China hawks in Congress expressed some concern and a need for Congress to review the terms of the deal to see whether it satisfies the divestiture law.
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he was “hopeful” they would strike a deal, but had concerns.
“At the end of the day, the algorithm is a huge issue and we don’t want to make allowances for China to continue to influence, control what 170 million Americans see and their outlook on the world. We look forward to what the president’s conversation is like with Xi Jinping.”
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