A transfer agreement for the short-video app TikTok has been approved by China, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced, adding that he expects it to proceed in the coming weeks and months without providing further details. China’s Ministry of Commerce stated in an announcement that China will appropriately handle TikTok-related issues with the United States.
“In Kuala Lumpur, we completed the TikTok deal on terms that China approved, and I expect it to move forward in the coming weeks and months and we’ll finally see a resolution to this,” Scott Bessent said on Fox Business Network following Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
TikTok: App’s fate remains uncertain
The fate of the app, which is used by approximately 170 million Americans, has remained uncertain for more than 18 months, since the US Congress approved a 2024 law requiring TikTok’s Chinese owners to sell the company’s US assets by January 2025.
Trump signed an executive order on September 25, acknowledging that the plan to sell TikTok’s US operations to a consortium of American and international investors meets the national security requirements set by the 2024 law, while providing a 120-day deadline to complete the transaction. He also postponed enforcement of the law until January 20.
According to Trump’s order, the app’s algorithm will be retrained and monitored by the American company’s security partners, while its operation will be under the control of the new consortium.
What the agreement provides
The agreement for TikTok’s US operations provides for the appointment of one of the seven members of the new board of directors by ByteDance, while the remaining six positions will be filled by Americans.
ByteDance will retain less than 20% stake in TikTok U.S. to comply with the law’s provisions that call for shutting down the app by January 2025 if the company doesn’t sell its US assets.
Republican Representative John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, said this month that a licensing agreement for TikTok’s algorithm, as part of selling the app’s US operations, would raise “serious concerns“.
