US and China reach agreement to allow TikTok to be controlled by Americans

The United States and China reached a landmark agreement on Monday, the 15th, for TikTok to pass into American hands , announced US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who participated in the negotiations between the two countries.

The landmark agreement reached provides for TikTok "to become a US-controlled property," Scott Bessent told reporters in Madrid, where the discussions took place.

"We're not going to discuss the commercial terms of the agreement. This is between two private parties, but the commercial terms have been agreed upon," he added, when asked about the social network's algorithm.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping "will speak on Friday to finalize the deal," Bessent said.

Minutes earlier, Trump had teased in his Truth Social platform a deal on a "'certain' company that young people in our country really wanted to save," adding that he would speak with Xi on Friday.

TikTok is owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. A federal law requiring the sale or ban of TikTok on national security grounds was supposed to take effect the day before Trump's inauguration on January 20th.

However, the Republican president suspended that ban and, in mid-June, extended the deadline for the app to find a non-Chinese buyer by another 90 days as a condition for not being banned in the United States.

This new deadline expires on September 17th.

“Good discussions”

Negotiations between the world's two largest economies took place on Sunday and Monday at the Spanish Foreign Ministry headquarters. The delegations were led by Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.

"We had very good discussions," Bessent said at the end of this new cycle of dialogues, adding that the contacts "focused on discussions about TikTok."

"We will hold new trade negotiations in about a month in another location, but we talked about many things we could do in the future," he added.

However, in a sign that bilateral tensions are not easing, Beijing on Monday accused US chip group Nvidia of violating its anti-monopoly laws and announced a "thorough investigation."

"After a preliminary investigation, it has been determined that Nvidia Corporation violated the anti-monopoly law of the People's Republic of China," the state markets regulator said in a statement, without specifying the violations.

The Chinese agency added that it will deepen the "preliminary investigation" it had launched in December into Nvidia.

This California-based company, a world leader in AI semiconductor production, has been embroiled in trade tensions between China and the United States . Washington, in fact, restricts the chips Nvidia can export to China for national security reasons.

Over the weekend, China also launched investigations into the US semiconductor sector .

China calls for “mutual respect”

China and the United States are exchanging accusations of worsening trade tensions that have led the parties to impose triple-digit tariffs in recent months.

Since then, Washington and Beijing have reached an agreement to reduce tensions and temporarily reduced tariffs to 30% on the United States and 10% on the Chinese side.

In August, the two countries postponed the resumption of higher tariffs for 90 days, until November 10.

China's Commerce Ministry on Friday urged Washington to "work with China on the basis of mutual respect and equal consultation, to resolve mutual concerns through dialogue and find a solution to the problem," according to a statement.

The Madrid meetings could lay the groundwork for a possible summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping before the end of the year.