The US treasury secretary has said Washington has reached a framework deal with China on the ownership of TikTok's American operations.
Scott Bessent noted that the framework was established during trade talks in Madrid to facilitate US ownership. He mentioned that US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will finalize the deal soon. As of now, China has not provided any comment.
Trump stated on Truth Social that the discussions in Madrid had progressed very positively, alluding to a deal concerning a popular platform among young Americans.
A deadline looms for TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to either find a buyer for its US operations or face a ban in the United States.
Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court upheld a law passed in April 2024, mandating that unless ByteDance sells its US division, operations would be restricted.
The US Justice Department argues that TikTok's potential access to data about American users presents a national-security threat of immense depth and scale. ByteDance, however, defends that its US operations are independent and insists that no user data has been shared with the Chinese government, asserting that banning the app would infringe upon the free speech rights of its 170 million users in the US.
TikTok briefly went offline in January after the law took effect, but Trump intervened, granting a 75-day reprieve. The deadline for a sale has been postponed three times, with the latest extension set to expire on September 17.
Several potential buyers for TikTok have been speculated in the past, including Tesla owner Elon Musk, YouTube star MrBeast, and billionaire investor Frank McCourt.
Bessent’s announcement regarding the framework deal came during ongoing trade negotiations between the US and China, which are centered around ending the trade war between the two largest economies.
