US and China Agree on Preliminary TikTok Ownership Deal Before Trump's Discussion with Xi

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Key Points

Trump and Xi are set to confirm details of the deal on Saturday AEST.
US treasury secretary says national security remains priority for the US.
China called US security fears “unilateral bullying” as tariff disputes continue.

US and Chinese officials said they have reached a framework agreement to switch short-video app TikTok to US-controlled ownership that will be confirmed in a call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The potential deal on the popular social media app, which counts 170 million US users, was a rare breakthrough in the months-long talks between the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 economies that have sought to defuse a wide-ranging trade war that has unnerved global markets.

After a meeting with Chinese negotiators in Madrid, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said a 17 September deadline that could have disrupted the app in the US encouraged Chinese negotiators to reach a potential deal.

What do we know about the TikTok deal?

Bessent said that deadline could be extended by 90 days to allow the deal to be finalised, but declined to discuss specifics of the deal.

He said when commercial terms of the deal are revealed, it will preserve cultural aspects of TikTok that Chinese negotiators care about.

“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 at the conclusion of two days of talks in Madrid.

It is the second time this year that the two sides have said they were nearing a TikTok deal. The earlier announcement in March ultimately did not pan out.

Any agreement could require approval by the Republican-controlled Congress, which passed a law in 2024 requiring divestiture due to fears that TikTok’s US user data could be accessed by the Chinese government, allowing Beijing to spy on Americans or conduct influence operations through the app.

But the Trump administration has repeatedly declined to force a shutdown, which could anger the app’s millions of users and disrupt political communications. Trump has credited the app with helping him win re-election last year, and his personal account has 15 million followers. The White House launched an official TikTok account last month.

US treasury secretary Scott Bessent (centre) said that US and China have reached an agreement that respects US interests and security, but is also fair to the Chinese side. Source: AAP / J.J. Guillen

“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! I will be speaking to President Xi on Friday. The relationship remains a very strong one!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Bessent did not say whether parent company ByteDance would transfer control of the app’s underlying technology to the unnamed US buyer. Wang Jingtao, an official at the Chinese cyberspace regulator, said the deal could licence intellectual property rights, including algorithms.

Aside from TikTok, the US has cited national security concerns to block shipments of semiconductors and other advanced technology to China, and ban Chinese products that Washington has concluded could be used to spy on Americans or gather intelligence.

China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, told reporters that those concerns amounted to “unilateral bullying”.

“The United States cannot on the one hand ask China to take care of its concerns, and on the other hand continue to suppress Chinese companies,” Li said.

Li said the two sides had reached a “basic framework consensus” on resolving TikTok-related issues — a slight variation from the language used by the US side.

The US-China meeting at the Spanish foreign ministry’s Palacio de Santa Cruz was the fourth round of talks in four months to address strained trade ties as well as TikTok’s divestiture deadline.

Delegations led by Bessent and Chinese vice premier He Lifeng have met in European cities since May to try to resolve a trade war that has seen tit-for-tat tariff hikes and a halt in the flow of rare earths to the United States.