US-China TikTok Deal At Goal Line, Bessent Hints, As Trump & Xi To Speak Friday

“The big Trade Meeting in Europe between The United States of America, and China, has gone VERY WELL! It will be concluding shortly,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday, hinting at strong progress on TikTok’s future, referencing a “certain company” that young Americans “very much wanted to save” - a yearslong priority of Trump’s which hearkens back to his first administration.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has indicated that a framework agreement has been reached, and crucially President Trump plans to speak directly with Chinese leader Xi Jinping Friday to finalize the deal. All this suggests significant trade talk advancement coming out of Chinese and US diplomats’ ongoing meetings in Spain. Trump himself had written Monday, “I will be speaking to President Xi on Friday.”

“President Trump played a role in this, we had a call with him last night, we had specific guidance from him we shared it with our Chinese counterparts,” Bessent said in Madrid, where he’s leading the American delegation. “Without his leadership and the leverage he provides, we would not have been able to include the deal today.”

“We were very focused on TikTok and making sure that it was a deal that is fair for the Chinese and completely respects US national security concerns, and that’s the deal we reached,” Bessent said. “And of course, we want to ensure that the Chinese have a fair, invested environment in the United States, but always that US national security comes first.”

Trump’s post was full of unexpected optimism, speaking of strong momentum in dialogue with Beijing: “The relationship remains a very strong one!!!” – the president wrote.

A tariff truce on Chinese imports, extended until November, has been in effect – though a 10% reciprocal tariff remains active during the suspension. Concerning TikTok, a bipartisan law which was approved by Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden which prohibits the app from operating in the United States unless its China-based parent company sells its ownership in the platform’s US assets. According to some breaking headlines:

• BESSENT: NEXT U.S.-CHINA TALKS COULD RESULT IN ANOTHER 90-DAY ROLL-OVER OF TARIFF TRUCE, WILL LIKELY HAPPEN BEFORE NOV 10 DEADLINE
• BESSENT: CHINESE NEGOTIATORS ARE TOUGH BUT REALIZE THEY HAVE 3.5 YEARS TO DE-RISK U.S. TRADE RELATIONSHIP TO AVOID A DECOUPLING
• BESSENT: TIKTOK COMMERCIAL TERMS WILL PRESERVE U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY INTERESTS AND APP’S ‘CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS’
• BESSENT SAYS THREAT OF TIKTOK SHUTDOWN BROUGHT CHINESE NEGOTIATORS TO FRAMEWORK DEAL ON DIVESTITURE-INTERVIEW
• BESSENT: CHINESE DELEGATION INITIALLY DEMANDED ‘COMPENSATION’ FOR TIKTOK SALE THROUGH TARIFF, EXPORT CONTROL CONCESSIONS

The US has recently added about two dozen more China-based companies to its entity list of businesses deemed to be “acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the US” - which now have restrictions imposed against them. All of this has upped the pressure and leverage.

The Spain talks could also pave the way for a potential face-to-face meeting between Trump and Xi by October, when the two are scheduled to attend a summit in South Korea in the same month. “With six weeks left remaining before a possible Trump-Xi meeting around the Korea Apec summit, the US and China must intensify their work if there are to be deliverables,” Wendy Cutler, a senior vice-president at the Asia Society Policy Institute and veteran US trade negotiator, was quoted in Bloomberg as saying.

But there remain other complicating factors, not the least of which is Washington pressuring the G-7 impose up to 100% tariffs on China for the purchase of Russian oil.

Beijing’s foreign ministry on Monday slammed this as a “typical act of bullying and economic coercion” while urging the US administration to be “cautious with its words and actions” and opt instead to resolve differences through dialogue.