The framework for a deal to save TikTok ahead of its looming ban deadline has been “agreed upon” between the United States and China, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
“It’s between two private parties, but the commercial terms have been agreed upon,” he said on Monday.
“A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our country very much wanted to save,” President Trump further teased on Truth Social. “They will be very happy! I will be speaking to President Xi on Friday.”
“We were very focused on TikTok and making sure that it was a deal that is fair for the Chinese and completely respects U.S. national security concerns, and that’s the deal we reached,” Bessent added from Madrid. He also noted that the U.S. wants to “ensure that the Chinese have a fair investment environment in the United States, but always that U.S. national security comes first.”
Whether or not TikTok will be banned in the U.S. is a question that has haunted both this country and this company for the past five years. Towards the end of his first presidential term, Trump signed an executive order declaring that ByteDance — the Chinese company that owns TikTok — would either need to sell the app to a U.S. owner or face being banned in America. Once Biden assumed office, he revoked Trump’s executive order. But the Democratic president was in office when TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress over concerns that China-based employees had accessed the personal information of American citizens using the app.
Once Trump regained office, he called for the app to be banned or find a new owner. The deadline for that particular executive order has been pushed back three times so far. With the latest deadline set for Wednesday, there’s a high chance it will be extended again.
