A Chinese state media editorial backs a US-China agreement to keep TikTok available in the United States ahead of a call between the nations’ leaders.
Investors on both sides of the Pacific are now waiting for the call scheduled for Friday between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in which the agreement reached in Madrid should be confirmed.
Progress over the popular social media app – which counts 170 million US users – is seen as key to facilitating further talks in the coming months as the world’s two largest economies chart a path beyond their current tariff truce.
Reuters has reported the deal, transferring TikTok’s US assets to US owners from China’s Bytedance, is similar to an agreement worked out earlier in 2025, but which was shelved after Trump announced steep tariffs on Chinese goods.
“China reached the relevant consensus with the United States on the TikTok issue because it is based on the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation,” the official People’s Daily said in a commentary.
The article was signed “Zhong Sheng” or “Voice of China”, a term the paper of the governing Communist Party uses to express views on foreign policy.
“China will review matters related to TikTok’s technology exports and intellectual property licensing in accordance with the law,” the commentary added.
After meeting with Chinese negotiators in Madrid earlier this week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a September 17 deadline that could have disrupted the app in the US could be extended by 90 days to allow the deal to be finalised, without giving any further details.
Earlier, Trump said a deal had been agreed between the United States and China to keep TikTok operating in the US.
“We have a deal on TikTok … We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it,” Trump told a White House briefing, without providing further details.
Li Chenggang, China’s international trade representative, told reporters the US and China had reached “basic framework consensus” to co-operatively resolve TikTok-related issues, reduce investment barriers and promote related economic and trade co-operation.
Bessent told CNBC the commercial terms of the deal had, in essence, been done since about March with just a few details left to be ironed out.
“This deal wouldn’t be done without proper safeguards for US national security,” Bessent said.
“It seems as though we were also able to meet the Chinese interest.”
CNBC reported the deal is expected to be closed within the next 30 to 45 days, and the agreement will include existing investors in TikTok’s China-based parent ByteDance and new investors.
The United States has said TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance makes it beholden to the Chinese government.
But the company has said US officials have misstated its ties to China, arguing its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the US on cloud servers operated by Oracle while content moderation decisions that affect US users are also made in the country.
with AP
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