President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to sign a “final deal” regarding the transfer of ownership for the U.S. version of TikTok on Thursday following negotiations led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
During a Sunday interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Bessent told CBS News host Margaret Brennan that Trump and Xi are currently expected to sign a deal on TikTok during the president’s trip to Asia this week. According to The New York Post, Trump and Xi will meet for the first time since 2019 in Busan, South Korea, on Thursday.
“We reached a final deal on TikTok,” Bessent told Brennan. “We reached one in Madrid, and I believe that, as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction on Thursday in Korea.”
Asked about the specific details regarding the “final deal” between the United States and China over the transfer of ownership for the U.S. version of TikTok, Bessent said, “I’m not part of the commercial side of the transaction. 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 agreement between the United States and China comes after the president issued an executive order in September that required ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to divest the U.S. version of TikTok to protect the national security of the United States.
“TikTok’s United States application will be operated by a newly established joint venture based in the United States,” the executive order stated. “It will be majority-owned and controlled by United States persons and will no longer be controlled by any foreign adversary, since ByteDance Ltd. and its affiliates will own less than 20 percent of the entity, with the remainder being held by certain investors (Investor Parties).”
Trump announced that the new joint venture will operate by a new board of directors and would be required to follow rules that “appropriately protect Americans’ data and our national security.”
The New York Post reported that the proposed deal outlined by Trump’s executive order would comply with the legislation Congress passed under former President Joe Biden’s administration last year. The legislation required TikTok to be divested from ownership linked to the Chinese Communist Party due to national security concerns posed by the social media platform under Chinese ownership.
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