Reuters

WASHINGTON:&nbsp;A US-China agreement sets out new governance for TikTok&rsquo;s US operations, giving Chinese owner ByteDance one of seven board seats while Americans hold the majority. The deal, aimed at avoiding a US ban on TikTok, requires TikTok&rsquo;s US assets to be majority-owned by American investors and data to be stored domestically. The algorithm will be retrained and controlled independently from ByteDance, with oversight by US authorities. A senior White House official said China&rsquo;s ByteDance will have one of seven board seats for TikTok&rsquo;s US operations under a new agreement, while six seats will be held by Americans. Trump extends pause on ban&nbsp;President Donald Trump is working to prevent a ban on TikTok in the US, which was mandated by a 2024 law requiring the company to sell its US assets by January 2025. Enforcement of the law has been delayed until mid-December as talks continue to separate TikTok&rsquo;s US business from its global platform, secure American investors, and meet the full divestiture criteria outlined in the law. This week&rsquo;s progress marks a significant development in lengthy negotiations between the US and China, who have sought to ease a broader trade war affecting global markets. Trump said after a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping that they made headway on the TikTok deal and planned to meet in person within six weeks. However, Beijing&rsquo;s statements have not clarified the extent of the progress. The White House official said Trump intends to extend the enforcement pause for an additional 120 days, making April the new deadline for finalising the deal. TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment. American concernsSome US lawmakers remain wary. Representative Frank Pallone, a Democrat, said: &ldquo;The devil will be in the details. We cannot allow China continued access to massive amounts of Americans&rsquo; personal data... and we cannot allow Trump to hand TikTok over to his tech bro buddies and turn it into a MAGA mouthpiece.&rdquo; It is unclear if the current deal satisfies the full divestiture requirements stipulated by Congress in 2024. Under the agreement, data for American users will be stored on US cloud infrastructure managed by Oracle, a US software firm. The TikTok algorithm &ldquo;will be secured, retrained and operated in the United States outside of ByteDance&rsquo;s control.&rdquo; The algorithm will be rebuilt from scratch using only US data under US supervision. US officials have been concerned that the algorithm could be used by China to influence the content Americans see on TikTok. Reports suggest the algorithm&rsquo;s licence may remain with ByteDance, but its operation will be under strict US control. US users will still be able to access content from around the world on TikTok. TikTok&rsquo;s US assets will be majority-owned by American investors and overseen by a board staffed with national security and cybersecurity experts. ByteDance&rsquo;s shareholders include Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic, and KKR. ByteDance itself would hold less than 20% ownership in the joint venture overseeing TikTok&rsquo;s US operations.

A 3D-printed miniature model of US President Donald Trump and TikTok logo are seen in this illustration. (Reuters)

Americas

China

The deal requires TikTok’s US assets to be majority-owned by American investors and data to be stored domestically. 

ByteDance to hold one board seat in proposed TikTok US ownership deal

WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump said he would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at a regional summit to take place at the end of October in South Korea and that he would visit China in the &ldquo;early part of next year,&rdquo; following a phone call the leaders shared on Friday. In a Truth Social post, Trump also said the Chinese leader would come to the United states &ldquo;at an appropriate time,&rdquo; noting the leaders also approved a TikTok deal. &ldquo;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!&rdquo; Trump wrote, referring to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, a grouping of 21 economies on the Pacific Rim. China&rsquo;s official news agency Xinhua said Xi, in the call, stressed the importance of the bilateral ties and urged the US side to avoid against any unilateral trade restrictions from the US. This is the second call with Xi since Trump returned to the White House and launched sky-high tariffs on China, triggering back-and-forth trade restrictions that strained ties between the two largest economies. But Trump, a Republican, has expressed willingness to negotiate trade deals with Beijing, notably for TikTok, which faces a US ban unless its Chinese parent company sells its controlling stake. Another call for Trump and Xi over trade tensionsThe two men also spoke in June to defuse tensions over China&rsquo;s restrictions on the export of rare earth elements, used in everything from smartphones to fighter jets. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m speaking with President Xi, as you know, on Friday, having to do with TikTok and also trade,&rdquo; Trump said Thursday. &ldquo;And we&rsquo;re very close to deals on all of it.&rdquo; He said his relationship with China is &ldquo;very good&rdquo; but noted that Russia&#39;s war in Ukraine could end if European countries put higher tariffs on China. Trump didn&rsquo;t say if he planned to raise tariffs on Beijing over its purchase of Moscow&#39;s oil, as he has done with India. The Chinese Embassy in Washington on Thursday didn&rsquo;t confirm any upcoming summit between the leaders, but spokesperson Liu Pengyu said &ldquo;heads-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance for China-US relations.&rdquo; Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center, predicted a positive discussion. &ldquo;Both sides have strong desire for the leadership summit to happen, while the details lie in the trade deal and what can be achieved for both sides from the summit,&rdquo; Sun said. Efforts to finalize the TikTok dealFollowing a US-China trade meeting earlier this week in Madrid, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the sides reached a framework deal on TikTok&#39;s ownership but Trump and Xi likely would finalize it Friday. Trump, who has credited the app with helping him win another term, several times has extended a deadline for the app to be spun off from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. It is a requirement to allow TikTok to keep operating in the US under a law passed last year seeking to address data privacy and national security concerns. Trump said TikTok &ldquo;has tremendous value&rdquo; and the US &ldquo;has that value in its hand because we&rsquo;re the ones that have to approve it.&rdquo; US officials have been concerned about ByteDance&rsquo;s roots and ownership, pointing to laws in China that require Chinese companies to hand over data requested by the government. Another concern is the proprietary algorithm that populates what users see on TikTok. Chinese officials said Monday that a consensus was reached on authorization of the &ldquo;use of intellectual property rights,&rdquo; including the algorithm, and that the two sides agreed on entrusting a partner with handling US user data and content security. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, says TikTok&#39;s data and algorithm must be &ldquo;truly in American hands&rdquo; to comply with the law. More trade issues on the tableTop US and Chinese officials have held four rounds of trade talks between May and September, with another likely in the coming weeks. Both sides have paused sky-high tariffs and pulled back from harsh export controls, but many issues remain unresolved. Trump in the call would likely &ldquo;seek to make it appear that the United States has the upper hand in trade negotiations,&rdquo; said Ali Wyne, senior research and advocacy adviser on US-China issues at the International Crisis Group. Xi would likely &quot;seek to underscore China&rsquo;s economic leverage and warn that continued progress in bilateral relations will hinge on an easing of US tariffs, sanctions and export controls,&rdquo; Wyne said. No deals have been announced on tech export restrictions, Chinese purchases of US agricultural products or fentanyl. The Trump administration has imposed additional 20% tariffs on Chinese goods linked to allegations that Beijing has failed to stem the flow to the US of the chemicals used to make opioids. Trump&rsquo;s second-term trade war with Beijing has cost US farmers one of their top markets. From January through July, American farm exports to China fell 53% compared with the same period last year. The damage was even greater in some commodities: US sorghum sales to China, for instance, were down 97%. Josh Gackle, chairman of the American Soybean Association, said he would be following the outcome of Friday&#39;s call because China, the biggest foreign buyer of US beans, has paused purchases for this year&#39;s new crop. &ldquo;There&#39;s still time. It&rsquo;s encouraging that the two countries continue to talk,&rdquo; Gackle said. &ldquo;I think there&rsquo;s frustration growing at the farmer level that they haven&rsquo;t been able to reach a deal yet.&rdquo;

Xi stresses importance of the bilateral ties, urges US side to avoid against any unilateral trade restrictions from the US.



Articles tagged with "Tiktok Deal"

ByteDance to hold one board seat in proposed TikTok US ownership deal

Trump, Xi to meet at APEC summit; TikTok deal approved