SAEDNEWS: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott BaSsent Announces China Approves TikTok Transfer Deal
According to the Science and Technology Desk of SaedNews, citing Reuters, the agreement is expected to be implemented in the coming weeks and months, although no further details were provided.
Speaking on Fox Business after U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Besant said: “In Kuala Lumpur, we finalized the TikTok agreement in terms of China’s approval, and I expect the deal to be executed in the coming weeks and months, and ultimately, we will see it resolved.”
China’s Ministry of Commerce stated in a release that the country is likely to manage TikTok-related issues with the U.S. appropriately. A Chinese government spokesperson added that Beijing is cooperating with the U.S. to address TikTok concerns.
The future of the app, which has 170 million American users, remained uncertain more than 18 months after a 2024 U.S. congressional law required Chinese owners of TikTok to sell the app’s U.S. assets by January 2025.
On September 25, Trump signed an executive order stating that the plan to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to a consortium of American and global investors meets the national security requirements of the law and gave TikTok 120 days to complete the transaction. He also postponed the law’s enforcement until January 20, 2026.
The order specifies that the Chinese platform’s algorithms will be retrained and monitored by security partners from the American company, with operations overseen by the new joint venture. The agreement on TikTok’s U.S. activities includes ByteDance appointing one of the seven board members of the new entity.
The remaining six board seats will go to Americans. ByteDance will hold less than 20% of TikTok U.S. shares to comply with the law, which had mandated the app’s shutdown by January 2025 if U.S. assets were not sold.
John Mulanar, a U.S. representative and Republican chair of the House Select Committee on China, said this month that the licensing deal for TikTok’s algorithm, as part of ByteDance’s U.S. asset sale, could raise serious concerns.