It seemed like the soap opera of TikTok, embedded at the forefront of the technological clash between United States and China, could finally come to a close after the meeting held on Thursday in South Korea between the US leader Donald Trump and Chinese Xi Jinping. It was their first face-to-face since the Republican took office in January. The meeting concluded with a one-year extension of the tariff truce, reduction of some tariffs by Washington, and Beijing's suspension of its latest restrictions on rare earths. However, there was no news about the fate of the famous short video application.
It took a few hours after the bilateral summit between the leaders of the two superpowers for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce to release a statement ensuring that China will work with Washington to "properly resolve" issues related to the sale of TikTok's US operations. No possible deadlines or further details were mentioned.
US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, was more straightforward later on, stating in an interview on Fox Business Network that China had approved the TikTok transfer agreement demanded by the Trump administration for the platform to continue operating in US territory.
Bessent was present during the over 90-minute meeting between Trump and Xi. However, the Secretary mentioned that the TikTok agreement was finalized a few days earlier in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, where the negotiating teams of both countries held their fifth commercial discussions on neutral ground after passing through Geneva, London, Stockholm, and Madrid.
"In Kuala Lumpur, we finalized the TikTok agreement regarding obtaining Chinese approval, and I hope this progresses in the coming weeks and months, and that we finally see a resolution on this matter," stated Bessent from the South Korean city of Gyeongju, where the Secretary is representing Washington at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, a regional summit.
Both governments continue to work towards resolving a dispute regarding the future of TikTok, which became entangled in the technological battle between the world's two largest economies when the US Congress passed a law in 2024 requiring Chinese owners to sell US assets of the application before January 2025.
This occurred during the Biden administration, but it was the first Trump administration that initiated the crusade against TikTok citing security reasons. The Chinese app, with around 180 million users in the US, has always denied sharing its data with the Chinese government.
On September 25, following a call between Trump and Xi Jinping, the Republican signed an executive order for TikTok's operations in the US to be transferred to American hands, separating from its Chinese owner, ByteDance.
According to the outlined plan, a consortium of investors, led by software giant Oracle, will take over 80% of the new version - ByteDance will have less than 20% - and will manage a licensed copy of the application's powerful recommendation algorithm.