Trump says he appreciates ‘TikTok approval’ after call with China’s Xi
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Congress had initially ordered the app shut down for US users by January 2025.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump said on Sept 19 he made progress on many issues, including on trade and approval of a deal on TikTok, in a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok deal,” Mr Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“The call was a very good one. We will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation),” he said.
A Chinese state media summary of the leaders’ call said Mr Xi told Mr Trump that Washington should stop imposing unilateral tariffs, but that it welcomes negotiations over TikTok.
The official readout described the first call in three months between the two men as positive and constructive.
“On TikTok, Xi said China’s position is clear: The Chinese government respects corporate will and welcomes companies to conduct business negotiations on the basis of market rules to reach a solution consistent with Chinese laws and regulations and a balance of interests,” according to the meeting summary in Xinhua.
Mr Trump and Mr Xi’s effort to steady relations coincides with an in-person summit
Beijing’s final approval of a framework deal reached by the two sides earlier this week is one of the hurdles Mr Trump needed to clear to keep TikTok open.
Congress had ordered the app shut down for US users by January 2025 if its US assets were not sold by Chinese owner ByteDance.
Mr Trump has declined to enforce the law while his administration looks for a new owner, but also because he worries a ban on the app would anger TikTok’s huge user base and disrupt political communications.
“I like TikTok; it helped get me elected,” Mr Trump said during a press conference on Sept 18. “TikTok has tremendous value. The United States has that value in its hand because we’re the ones that have to approve it.”
Key questions about the deal remain. It is not clear the precise ownership structure of the company, how much control China will retain or whether Congress will approve.
The deal would transfer TikTok’s US assets to US owners from ByteDance, Reuters has reported. Sources familiar with the deal said US TikTok would still make use of ByteDance’s algorithm.
That arrangement worries lawmakers concerned that Beijing could spy on Americans or conduct influence operations through the app. China has said there is no evidence of a national security threat posed by the app.
Trump has a list of demands
Mr Trump has positioned his foreign policy approach as one of peace-seeking and deal-making. Relations remain icy between the world’s two biggest economies.
“We’re pretty close to a deal,” Mr Trump said on Sept 18 in an apparent reference to larger trade talks. “We may do an extension with China, but it’s an extension based on the same terms that we have right now, which are pretty good terms.”
Other key issues include competition between both sides on semiconductors and other advanced technologies. The US wants more Chinese purchases of US-harvested soya beans and Boeing airplanes.
The US is also demanding that China crack down on the export of fentanyl-related chemicals
Recent data point to slowing economies in both China and the US.
Since retaking office in January, Mr Trump sharply hiked tariffs across the board and singled out China’s export-oriented economy with especially punitive rates. That prompted China to respond in kind.
Tariff rates on both sides of the Pacific rose to triple-digit percentages in April.
A succession of limited agreements since May paused the tit-for-tat tariff war between the countries.
They also set aside issues that led to China choking off rare-earth magnets that Washington needs to make high-tech gadgets. Mr Trump had blocked Beijing’s access to semiconductor design software, jet engines and some chemicals.
“China’s effective use of sticks (rare earths) and carrots (TikTok) has turned things heavily in their favour,” said Mr Scott Kennedy, head of the Chinese Business and Economics programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank.
Tariffs, a tax on US importers, have been a key plank of Mr Trump’s economic policy. He has raised them to the highest levels in nearly a century.
The Republican has portrayed tariffs as an elixir that can recoup lost manufacturing jobs, cut chronic federal government deficits, correct perceived trade imbalances and bend foreign countries to Washington’s will.
Despite the tariffs, China remains the US’ third-largest trading partner and the source of its largest bilateral trade deficit in goods.
Mr Trump has threatened but so far withheld punitive tariffs against Chinese exports related to the country’s purchases of Russian oil.
At the same time, regional worries are multiplying over Taiwan and the South China Sea, risky flashpoints that struggle to command as much attention in Washington as the Russia-Ukraine and Gaza wars.
“Heads-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance for China-US relations,” said Mr Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington.
In an early sign of goodwill prior to the call, China permitted the departure of Wells Fargo banker Chenyue Mao, who had been prevented from returning to the US for several months. REUTERS
