The United States and China have reached a “framework” deal concerning social media platform TikTok, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed Monday, according to CNBC, marking the latest twist in the long-running battle over the app’s future.
“It’s between two private parties, but the commercial terms have been agreed upon,” Bessent said during U.S.-China talks in Madrid.
Both President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet on Friday to discuss the terms of the framework. In a post on Truth Social, Trump also hinted at the breakthrough, saying a deal was reached “on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save.”
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 19 (Feb 9 – May 2, 2026): big discounts for early bird.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and co-invest in great global startups.
Register for Tekedia AI Lab: From Technical Design to Deployment (next edition begins Jan 24 2026).
Bessent suggested that the framework could eventually pivot TikTok toward U.S.-controlled ownership, though specific details have not yet been released. TikTok itself has not commented on the deal.
From the Chinese side, Li Chenggang, Beijing’s lead trade negotiator, confirmed the existence of the framework but cautioned Washington against “continuing to suppress Chinese companies,” according to Reuters. His remarks came amid heightened U.S.-China trade tensions, worsened by Trump’s new tariffs and broader restrictions on Chinese firms.
At the same time, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, faces a looming September 17 deadline to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations or risk a nationwide shutdown. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Monday that while the deadline could be extended slightly to finalize the deal, “there won’t be ongoing extensions.”
The standoff has already seen Google and Apple blocked from distributing TikTok in the U.S. under its designation as a “foreign adversary-controlled application.” Trump postponed the full shutdown in January, issuing an executive order that gave ByteDance an additional 75 days to secure a deal. He later signed two more extensions in April and June, keeping TikTok alive as talks continued.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in July warned that TikTok would “shutter for Americans” if Beijing does not grant Washington greater autonomy over the platform. Trump himself told Fox News in June that he had assembled a group of “very wealthy people” prepared to buy the app, though their identities were never revealed.
Potential suitors have ranged from Oracle chairman Larry Ellison to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, while others like artificial intelligence startup Perplexity and businessman Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty internet advocacy group have formally submitted bids, according to CNBC.
Even as Trump maintains that TikTok poses a national security threat, the White House itself opened an official TikTok account in August, underscoring the app’s grip on young voters ahead of the 2026 elections.
This is not the first time Washington has pushed TikTok to the brink of a ban. The saga mirrors the Trump administration’s earlier attempts to force a U.S. buyout in 2020, when Microsoft, Walmart, and Oracle all vied for control of TikTok’s American business. At that time, Trump cited national security concerns over user data potentially flowing to Beijing, echoing the same arguments heard today. Although Oracle was briefly announced as TikTok’s “trusted technology partner,” the deal never gained full approval, and legal challenges stalled enforcement of a ban.
Outside the U.S., India was another country that moved to ban the use of Chinese apps under national security grounds. In June 2020, New Delhi banned TikTok outright alongside dozens of other Chinese apps over security and data concerns. But unlike the U.S., which has opted for drawn-out negotiations and potential ownership transfers, India took a unilateral approach that reshaped its digital ecosystem overnight.
The difference now is that the Trump administration has been willing to repeatedly extend deadlines and keep negotiations alive, highlighting both the app’s massive popularity in the U.S. and its bargaining power in U.S.-China trade talks. The upcoming Trump-Xi meeting will determine whether this framework leads to a permanent resolution or becomes another chapter in a long series of extensions.