President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping could “consummate” a deal to allow TikTok to keep operating in the United States during their meeting on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday on “Face the Nation.”
Bessent stated that the U.S. and China had reached “a final deal on TikTok” with all the details ironed out, leaving only the leaders to seal the agreement.
What he’s saying: “My remit was to get the Chinese to agree to approve the transaction, and I believe we successfully accomplished that over the past two days,” Bessent said.
The big picture: Details of the arrangement, announced as a framework in September, include American investors owning a majority stake in TikTok’s U.S. operations while ByteDance, the Chinese parent company, would hold less than 20%.
- ByteDance would license a version of TikTok’s algorithm to the American app, which U.S. officials say would be free from Chinese control.
Driving the news: The deal is intended to comply with a 2024 U.S. law designed to ban TikTok unless ByteDance sells it, addressing concerns that Chinese ownership risks American users’ data privacy and national security.
- It remains unclear what specific new details, if any, have been finalized since the framework agreement was made last September.
