Trump and XI have not reached a final agreement on Tiktok, but announces “significant progress”. What follows
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Donald Trump, Photo: Dilara Irem Sancar / AFP / Profimedia Images
US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping did not reach a final Tiktok agreement in a telephone call on Friday, but made “significant progress” to an agreement, a white house official said. Previously, Trump had announced in an X post that he and XI will meet personally in the margin of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in South Korea, which will take place on October 31 and November 1. Trump also said he will visit China “in the first part of next year and that President XI will also come to the United States at the right time,” notes News.ro.
The statements come after Trump and the Chinese state press have published different versions of the discussion, which left the status of the agreement on the popular video application unclear.
“I just concluded a very productive conversation with President XI of China. We made progress on many very important issues, including trade, fentanil, the need to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and the approval of the Tiktok agreement,” Trump wrote on Social on Friday morning.
He added that he agreed with XI to meet in the future Apec summit in South Korea and that he will pay a visit to China “at the beginning of next year”, while XI “will also come to the United States.”
“The conversation was a very good one, we will talk again on the phone, I appreciate the approval of Tiktok and we both look forward to the meeting from APEC!”, Trump said.
The version broadcast by the Xinhua news agency, however, allowed to understand differences in position.
“China's position on the Tiktok issue is clear: the Chinese government respects the will of companies and is glad to see that companies are negotiating based on market rules and reach solutions that respect Chinese legislation and balances the interests,” the Agency said.
“We hope that the American side will offer an open, fair and non -discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies investing in the United States,” Xinhua added.
“The American side wants to promote bilateral economic and commercial cooperation, will support the consultations between the two teams and will solve properly the tiktok problem,” the statement said.
At the beginning of the week, the secretary of the treasury, Scott Bessent, announced that the negotiator teams have come to a “framework” for Tiktok, the company being threatened in the US if Byteance does not give up the American business.
Trump, who has repeatedly stated that he is a fan of the application, has extended several times the deadline established by federal law. The last extension, by executive order, carries the date until December 16.
In his UK state visit, the president reiterated the desire to keep Tiktok on the American market: “There will be discussions with President XI on Friday to see if we can complete something about Tiktok, because there is a huge value and I hate to yield value, but I like Tiktok,” Trump said to the residence of the British prime minister.
The debate on the application was fueled by the Bipartisan fears of the US Congress that the social networks controlled by external opponents could be used for surveillance or manipulation. Former President Joe Biden signed the law that requires the sale of the US Tiktok business in April 2024. Initially, the term was January 19, 2025, but Trump delayed four times from his entry into office.
