In a high-stakes diplomatic and commercial showdown, the United States and China struck a framework agreement over TikTok’s ownership just days before a do-or-die deadline that could have forced the wildly popular app offline.
A Race Against the Clock
Speaking at a press conference in Madrid on Monday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that negotiators had hammered out a preliminary deal. While few specifics were revealed, Bessent stressed the pact “respects U.S. national security concerns while being fair to China.”
The timing could not be tighter. A law passed in April 2024 forced TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell or shut down the app’s U.S. operations. The original deadline was January, but President Donald Trump issued extensions, with the final cutoff landing this Wednesday.
President Trump hinted at progress early Monday with a triumphant post on Truth Social, saying “the big Trade Meeting” in Spain went “VERY WELL!” He added that an agreement was reached involving a company that “young people in our Country very much wanted to save.”
