Trump’s statement suggests preliminary agreement between leaders in the first direct contact between them since June
Donald Trump said on Friday that he and Xi Jinping had agreed to approve a deal over TikTok.
“He approved the TikTok deal,” Trump said about Xi to reporters in the Oval Office, suggesting the leaders signed off on a preliminary agreement. But Trump offered no details about the agreement or when it would be signed.
The American and Chinese leaders had connected over a phone call earlier in the day, the first direct contact between the two leaders since June. China and the US have been at loggerheads over trade negotiations and the future of TikTok, a Chinese-owned social media platform that faces a ban in the US.
Trump had said earlier this week that Washington and Beijing had agreed a deal on TikTok under which it would be transferred to US control, but details of the framework have been scant, and elements reportedly remain to be hashed out. Investors including the US software giant Oracle have been in talks to take a large stake in TikTok’s US operations, which would dilute the amount of China-based ownership to comply with a law Congress passed last year.
