US and China agree on framework to transfer TikTok to US control
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The news: US and Chinese officials said on Monday they have reached a framework agreement to switch TikTok to US-controlled ownership, to be confirmed in a Friday call between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
What they said: Speaking to reporters in Madrid following two days of trade talks, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a deal framework had been agreed, but declined to discuss specifics.
“President Trump and party Chair Xi will speak on Friday to complete the deal, but we do have a framework for the deal with TikTok,” the treasury secretary told reporters. “I think the framework is for it to switch to US-controlled ownership.”
“We’re not going to talk about the commercial terms of the deal. It’s between two private parties, but the commercial terms have been agreed upon.”
Bessent added the deal will include preserving some of TikTok’s cultural aspects that the 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,” he said.
Li Chenggang, China’s top trade negotiator, also told reporters in Madrid that the two sides had reached a “basic framework consensus” on issues including resolving TikTok-related issues.
The context: The framework agreement follows months of negotiations between the United States and China, with four rounds of talks since May. It comes before a Wednesday deadline under a US law passed in 2024 requiring TikTok’s parent ByteDance to divest the app or face a ban. Trump has repeatedly extended that deadline, including reversing a brief shutdown in January when Apple and Google removed TikTok from their app stores.
There have been earlier discussions on TikTok’s future, including a proposed Microsoft acquisition in 2020 and a joint Walmart-Oracle plan for TikTok Global, but those did not go ahead. Oracle has remained TikTok’s US cloud provider since 2022 through Project Texas, which was aimed at separating US user data from ByteDance’s operations in China.
Shares in Oracle rose over 2% amid speculation the company could be involved in the agreed deal.
The app, which has about 170 million according to Reuters, has been at the centre of Washington’s national security concerns over fears that Beijing could access data or conduct influence operations. Former FBI director Christopher Wray and the Department of Justice have previously warned that Chinese laws could compel ByteDance to hand over information or manipulate content.
Trump has credited TikTok with helping him win re-election and his personal account has 15 million followers.
The sources: Reuters, The Guardian, Bloomberg, The New York Times
