U.S. President Donald Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping made progress on a TikTok agreement and pledged to meet face-to-face in just over a month in South Korea.
The two sides appeared to lower tensions during the first call in three months between the leaders of the two superpowers, but it was not immediately clear if the call had yielded the expected firm agreement over the fate of the popular short-video app.
Trump said the leaders agreed to talks on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum that starts on October 31 in Gyeongju, South Korea, and for a potential later visit to China by Trump.
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“We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal,” Trump wrote on social media. “The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC!” he added.
China’s official account of the discussion, however, was more restrained and made no reference to a final agreement.
“On TikTok, Xi said China’s position is that the Chinese government respects the will of firms and welcomes companies to conduct business negotiations on the basis of market rules to reach a solution consistent with Chinese laws and regulations while balancing interests,” according to the meeting summary in Xinhua.
A Long-Running Flashpoint
The fate of TikTok has been one of the most contentious issues in U.S.-China relations since 2020, when Washington first raised concerns that the platform’s Chinese ownership through ByteDance posed national security risks. U.S. lawmakers and intelligence agencies repeatedly warned that the app’s massive data troves could be accessed by Beijing, a charge the company has denied.
Efforts to ban or force the sale of TikTok to an American company have been tied up in U.S. courts for years, with ByteDance pursuing legal challenges while simultaneously striking data storage deals with American cloud providers in hopes of easing concerns. Microsoft, Oracle, and Walmart were at different points floated as potential partners, though those negotiations repeatedly broke down.
The Trump administration revived pressure in recent months, framing the TikTok deal as not only a matter of national security but also as a bargaining chip in the broader trade negotiations with China. Trump has tied the approval of a deal to wider economic discussions, using TikTok as both a symbol of Chinese tech dominance and a lever in disputes over trade imbalances, tariffs, and intellectual property protections.
That backdrop explains why the TikTok issue emerged alongside other major points in the Trump-Xi call. According to Trump, discussions also covered fentanyl exports, a key concern for U.S. law enforcement, as well as the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. The blending of issues shows how technology platforms have become inseparable from broader questions of national security and trade policy.
While Trump expressed optimism, Beijing’s cautious wording highlights the deep differences yet to be reconciled. For China, allowing TikTok to be carved away from its parent company ByteDance would not only set a precedent for foreign pressure on its tech giants but also be seen domestically as a concession under U.S. duress.
Analysts note that any progress on TikTok could signal a temporary thaw in tensions, but without a binding agreement, the platform’s U.S. future remains uncertain. The matter, for now, has moved from the courtroom and regulatory hearings into the highest level of diplomacy — a sign of both TikTok’s global cultural clout and its symbolic weight in the rivalry between Washington and Beijing.