Trump and Xi could ‘consummate’ TikTok deal this week, Bessent says
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's comments came as US and Chinese officials said they had made progress on a trade deal after discussions in Malaysia.
PHOTO: AFP
David McCabe
Follow topic:
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump and China’s leader, Mr Xi Jinping, could “consummate” a deal to allow TikTok to continue to operate in the United States when they meet on Oct 30, said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Oct 26.
Mr Bessent’s comments, made on CBS News’ Face The Nation programme, came as US and Chinese officials said they had made progress on a trade deal between the two countries after discussions in Malaysia.
Mr Bessent said the US and China had reached “a final deal on TikTok” and that “as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction” when they meet on Oct 30 in South Korea
“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,” the Treasury Secretary said.
Mr Bessent’s comments did not go much further than his announcement in September that the two countries had reached the framework of a deal for TikTok
It is unclear what details have been settled more recently, or whether Mr Bessent’s comments signalled substantive changes to the deal to place the app in American hands.
Under the deal laid out by the White House in September, after trade talks in Madrid, American investors would own a majority stake in TikTok’s US operations.
Its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, would own less than 20 per cent. ByteDance would license a copy of the app’s algorithm to the American app, which US officials said would be outside of Chinese control.
Mr Trump said in an executive order that the arrangement would satisfy the terms of a 2024 law, which in effect would ban the app in the US unless ByteDance sold it.
Congress passed the law over concerns that the wildly popular app’s Chinese ownership meant Beijing could gain access to the personal data of Americans or use its feed of videos to spread propaganda.
Representatives for TikTok and US Vice-President J.D. Vance, who has led negotiations for the sale of the app, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. NYTIMES
