US treasury secretary Scott Bessent claimed on Sunday that the US and China have finalized the details of a deal transferring TikTok’s US version to new owners.
“We reached a final deal on TikTok,” Bessent said on Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan. Alluding to Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, Bessent continued: “We reached [a deal] 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” during a meeting scheduled for Thursday in Korea.
Bessent did not disclose any details of the deal. But he did say it was a part of a broader framework – agreed to by both the US and China – of a potential trade deal to be discussed when Trump and Xi meet in the coming days.
The comments from Bessent came after Trump signed an executive order on 25 September paving the way for a deal for new ownership based in the US, with a majority of American investors.
“I’m not part of the commercial side of the transaction,” Bessent added. “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.”
Trump’s 19-year-old son, Barron Trump, has been floated by the president’s former social media producer Jack Advent as a potential board member. Trump has indicated new US investors include conservative media owners Rupert Murdoch and Larry Ellison.
In 2020, during his first presidency, Trump threatened to ban TikTok in 2020 in retaliation for China’s handling of Covid-19.
Congress passed a ban of the app before it was signed into law in April 2024 by Joe Biden when he was president in between Trump’s two terms. It was set to go into effect on 20 January 2025 but was extended four times by Trump while his administration worked to develop a deal to transfer ownership.
The deal is estimated to be valued at $14bn. The majority of US and international investors will own about 65% of the company, with ByteDance and Chinese investors owning less than a 20% stake.
Trump’s executive order hands oversight of the app’s algorithm to the new investors, including six out of seven seats on the board of directors.
Trump arrived in Malaysia on Sunday for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as part of a five-day tour of the continent, with an expected face-to-face meeting between Trump and Xi on Thursday.
The two are expected to discuss soybean and agricultural purchases from US farmers, trade balance, and the American fentanyl crisis, which was cited as the basis for Trump’s 20% tariffs on Chinese imports.
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