HONG KONG — President Donald Trump said that he had made progress on several issues with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a call Friday morning, including on the “approval of the TikTok deal,” and that he plans to meet with Xi in person this fall and in China early next year.
Trump summarized their conversation, which he said began at 8 a.m. ET, in a Truth Social post in which he said he appreciates “the TikTok approval,” but stopped short of announcing any kind of finalized deal. As expected, the call also appeared to touch on the ongoing trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
“I just completed a very productive call with President Xi of China. We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal,” Trump wrote.
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Trump said that he agreed with Xi that they would meet at the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 APEC summit in South Korea, that Trump would go to China early next year, and that Xi would eventually come to the U.S.
“The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC!” the president wrote.
The White House is not disputing the characterization that there is no final TikTok deal. An announcement on a final deal would ultimately come from the president, a White House official said.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Friday afternoon, Trump offered some mixed messages on the status of TikTok talks. He said Xi "approved the TikTok deal," and then said "we look forward to getting that deal closed."
Asked directly if the deal was fully approved, Trump said, "Well, I think so. I mean — when you say fully approved, I don’t know what that means. We have to get, we have to get it signed. I guess it could be a formality."
He added that "the TikTok deal is well on its way."
Separately, Chinese state media said Trump and Xi had a “candid and in-depth exchange of views” and that the call was “pragmatic, positive, and constructive.” Xi said the U.S. should avoid taking restrictive trade measures “to prevent undermining the outcomes achieved through multiple rounds of consultations,” according to a readout published by Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency.
On TikTok, Xi said the Chinese government “respects the will of companies and is pleased to see companies conduct business negotiations on the basis of market rules and reach solutions that comply with Chinese laws and regulations and balance interests,” the readout said.
“We hope the U.S. side will provide an open, fair, and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies investing in the United States,” it said.
In a statement, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, thanked Xi and Trump “for their efforts to preserve TikTok in the United States” and said it will “work in accordance with applicable laws to ensure TikTok remains available to American users through TikTok U.S.”
Friday's call was the first between Trump and Xi since June, when Trump said they had spoken for about 90 minutes in a discussion focused on trade.
At the height of trade tensions in April, U.S. and Chinese tariff rates reached as high as 145%, in what amounted to a mutual trade embargo. Since then they have been lowered under another “framework” deal, with new U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods capped at 30%, while China imposes a 10% additional tariff on U.S. goods.
The lower tariff rates are set to expire on Nov. 10 unless a deal is reached or the trade truce is extended again.
The two countries also continue to tussle over export controls on strategically important products such as rare earths, which China has a near-monopoly over, and U.S. chip technology.
TikTok, which is estimated to have about 170 million active users in the U.S., faces a ban unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, agrees to sell the app’s U.S. assets to U.S. owners. The sale is required under a law Congress passed last year, citing national security concerns.
On Tuesday, Trump formally extended the deadline for a TikTok deal for a fourth time, until Dec. 16, a day after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Beijing and Washington had struck a “framework” for an agreement, without providing details such as who would be taking over TikTok’s U.S. operations.
Trump has gone back and forth on the ban, but he credits TikTok with helping him win last year’s presidential election and has expressed concern about alienating its huge and youthful user base. He said Thursday during a visit to the U.K. that the app “has tremendous value” and that “very rich people and companies are going to be owning it.”
U.S. officials have said the TikTok sale is necessary because of Chinese laws that require Chinese companies to share data requested by the government. They also cite concerns about data collection and the algorithm the app uses to recommend content to users, which they say is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese officials.
TikTok denies sharing user data with Chinese authorities and says the U.S. has never provided evidence of Beijing trying to manipulate the algorithm.
Lawyers for TikTok and ByteDance say the powerful algorithm, which has helped fuel the app’s global success, is proprietary and thus difficult to sell to a U.S. company under Chinese law.
There are concerns that TikTok may continue to use the Chinese algorithm in the U.S.
Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the committee’s ranking member, have both expressed opposition to any deal that keeps the algorithm under Chinese control or allows ByteDance to maintain an operational relationship with the new American TikTok.
“President Trump has all the leverage he needs to strike a deal that saves TikTok and complies with the law — which means making sure TikTok’s data and algorithm are truly in American hands,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement Thursday.
Any deal would most likely need to be approved by Congress as well as ByteDance’s board.
Compared with five years ago, when Trump first called for a ban during his first term, TikTok is more mature as a platform and less likely to keep growing, said Dimitar Gueorguiev, an associate professor of political science and director of Chinese studies at Syracuse University.
“TikTok is, I think, a less valuable bargaining chip from the Chinese perspective, and an easier concession,” he said. “On the other hand, for the United States, it’s as visible and kind of politically salient as ever.”
While the details of the TikTok deal remain unclear, Gueorguiev said, the broader question is “can the Trump administration, as well as their counterparts in Beijing, convert on whatever progress we observe today and keep it going” to achieve a “larger bargain” between the U.S. and China.
“If we’re thinking about what is the ultimate outcome of this, and who wins and who loses, there’s still a lot to be told,” he said.
