TikTok’s fate remains uncertain, but China says it will “work” with the United States
By Associated Press | Published: 2025-10-30 14:53:00 | Source: Fast Company – technology
President Donald Trump’s meeting on Thursday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping resulted in a range of decisions to help ease trade tensions, but no agreement was reached on ownership of TikTok.
“China will work with the United States to appropriately resolve issues related to TikTok,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said after the meeting.
It did not provide details about any progress towards ending the uncertainty over the fate of the popular video sharing platform in the United States
The Trump administration has been signaling that it may finally have reached an agreement with Beijing to keep TikTok running in the United States
Treasury Secretary Scott Besent said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the two leaders “will complete that deal on Thursday in Korea.”
A broad bipartisan majority in Congress has passed — and President Joe Biden has signed — a law that would ban TikTok in the United States if a new owner cannot be found to replace China’s ByteDance. The platform went down briefly around the January deadline, but on his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order to keep it running while his administration tried to reach an agreement to sell the company.
Three more executive orders followed as Trump, without a clear legal basis, extended deadlines for the TikTok deal. The second was in April, when White House officials thought they were nearing a deal to spin off TikTok into a new company with American ownership. That collapsed when China backed down after Trump announced a sharp increase in tariffs on Chinese products. Deadlines expired in June and September, when Trump said he would allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States in a way that meets national security concerns.
Trump’s order was intended to enable a US-led group of investors to buy the app from Chinese company ByteDance, although the deal also requires Chinese approval.
However, the TikTok deal “is not really a big deal for Xi Jinping,” Bonnie Glaser, executive director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific Program, said during a press conference on Tuesday. “(China) is happy to let Trump announce they’re finally keeping the deal. Whether or not this deal will protect Americans’ data is a big question going forward.”
“The big question mark for the United States, of course, is whether this is consistent with American law since there is a law passed by Congress,” Glaser said.
About 43% of U.S. adults under 30 say they regularly get news from TikTok, a higher percentage than any other social media app, including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, according to a Pew Research Center report published in September.
A recent Pew Research Center poll found that about a third of Americans said they support a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Nearly a third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar percentage said they were unsure.
Among those who said they supported banning the social media platform, about 8 in 10 cited concerns about the security of users’ data being compromised as a key factor in their decision, according to the report.
The security controversy centers around TikTok’s recommendation algorithm – which directed millions of users to an endless stream of short videos. China has said the algorithm should remain under Chinese control by law, but the US regulation passed by Congress with bipartisan support said any divestment in TikTok would require the platform to cut ties with ByteDance.
US officials have warned that the algorithm – a complex system of rules and calculations that platforms use to deliver personalized content – is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, but US officials have provided no evidence that China has tried to do so.
Associated Press writer Fu Ting contributed to this story from Washington.
— Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer
(tags for translation)ByteDance
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