The United States says it has reached a “framework” agreement with China on the future of TikTok’s operations in the country, a move that could lead to American ownership of the popular app.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made the announcement on Monday after talks in Madrid. He said President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to “complete” the deal on Friday.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that negotiations had “gone very well,” while China confirmed the framework but insisted no deal would be made “at the expense of our firms’ interests.”
The clock is ticking for TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, which faces a Wednesday deadline to sell its US business or risk a nationwide ban. The deadline has already been pushed back three times, with the latest extension ending on September 17.
CBS reported that Oracle was among the companies ready to take part in a new ownership structure if Washington and Beijing seal the agreement.
The app’s future has been at the centre of wider trade negotiations between both countries. At the peak of the trade war, tariffs on some goods soared to 145 per cent. Bessent said the framework would “protect US national security interests.”
US trade representative Jamieson Greer, who joined the talks, explained that the deal is still “subject to the leaders’ approval,” adding that his team was “not in the business of having repetitive extensions.”
China’s lead negotiator, Li Chenggang, stressed that any deal must respect Beijing’s principles, saying, “our leadership will review before agreement.”
The legal battle over TikTok’s future began in 2024 when the US passed a law banning the app unless ByteDance sold its American arm. The Supreme Court upheld the law earlier this year. The app briefly went offline before Trump intervened with a 75-day postponement.
US officials have long argued that TikTok’s access to user data is a “national-security threat of immense depth and scale.” But ByteDance maintains that its American operations are independent and has denied handing data to Beijing. The company also insists a ban would breach free speech rights for its 170 million US users.
Experts remain cautious. Sarah Kreps of Cornell University warned that the deal could “resolve ownership on paper but leave core vulnerabilities untouched” unless there are clear safeguards for data and algorithm control.
Former US national security official Jim Secreto said the stakes go beyond ownership. “The data TikTok collects from Americans today could help train the models that power China’s military and intelligence capabilities tomorrow,” he noted.
Potential buyers such as Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, YouTube creator MrBeast, and billionaire investor Frank McCourt have all been linked to the deal in the past.
