President Donald Trump’s administration said the United States and China have reached a framework agreement to transfer ownership of TikTok from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to a U.S.-based controlling shareholder. The deal is expected to be finalized during a phone call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday (September 19).
“We’ve reached a deal on TikTok,” President Trump said Tuesday (September 16) as he departed for a state visit to the UK.
The transfer of ownership of the popular social media platform to the United States is intended to address U.S. national security concerns that the Chinese government could access TikTok user data.
Trump also posted on Truth Social on Monday, “The Big Trade Talks between the United States and China in Europe are going very well! The meeting is wrapping up soon. We also made a deal on a certain company that our country’s young people are desperate to save. They will be very happy! I will speak with President Xi on Friday. The relationship remains very strong!!!”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also confirmed the “framework agreement” on Monday after trade talks in Madrid, which concluded before a U.S.-imposed September 17 deadline. That deadline was originally set by legislation passed by Congress in 2024 but has been extended several times by Trump’s executive orders.
If no agreement is reached by the deadline, the United States will impose a nationwide ban, forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. market operations, otherwise the service may be shut down.
“This is a transaction between two private organizations. But the commercial terms have been agreed upon,” Bessant told reporters. Specific details have not yet been released.
U.S. officials have long been concerned that Beijing could obtain data on American citizens through TikTok, and are also worried that the app will spread propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party.
China’s chief negotiator, Li Chenggang, also confirmed that the two countries had reached an agreement on a “basic framework consensus,” but he stressed that China “will never seek to reach any agreement at the expense of its principled positions, corporate interests, and international fairness and justice.” Li Chenggang made the remarks after the Madrid talks concluded on Monday.
Trump had previously stated that he was willing to accept an acquisition of TikTok by Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison. However, before leaving for the UK on Tuesday, he declined to comment when asked by reporters about the U.S. consortium’s acquisition of TikTok.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in Madrid on Monday that the negotiating team is “very focused on TikTok and making sure it’s a fair deal for China” while also “fully respecting U.S. national security concerns.”
Separately, Wang Jingtao, deputy director of the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission of China, told reporters in Madrid on Monday that the two sides reached a consensus on licensing the use of intellectual property, including TikTok’s algorithms – one of the main points of contention in the agreement.
He said the two sides also agreed that a single partner would be responsible for handling the data and content security of U.S. users.
TikTok is currently operating normally for its 170 million U.S. users. Tech giants such as Apple, Google and Oracle continue to support the app, while the U.S. Department of Justice has said it will not use the law to impose potentially high fines on them.
As of September, Trump’s personal TikTok account, @realdonaldtrump, had more than 15 million followers. He joined the platform in June 2024 during his presidential campaign.
