Nearly two years after the United States Congress threatened to prohibit TikTok, a breakthrough agreement has been reached between Washington and Beijing that could determine the platform’s future in the American market.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the development on Tuesday following a fresh round of trade talks with Chinese officials in Spain. According to Bessent, US President Donald Trump and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping are expected to hold direct discussions on Friday to potentially finalize the agreement. The central objective of the arrangement is to transfer TikTok’s ownership from its parent company, China’s ByteDance, to an American entity.
The path to this deal has been marked by years of political tension. Under former President Joe Biden, Congress passed legislation mandating a nationwide ban on TikTok unless ByteDance relinquished its majority stake. US lawmakers argued that Chinese national security laws obligate companies to share data with Beijing upon request, creating risks that sensitive information from American users could be accessed by the Chinese government. This concern has consistently placed TikTok at the center of Washington’s broader debate about technology, surveillance, and geopolitical rivalry.
A major obstacle in the negotiations has been TikTok’s closely guarded algorithm, the proprietary technology that powers its recommendation engine and drives user engagement worldwide. For months, US officials pressed for assurances over how the algorithm would be managed if TikTok transitioned to American ownership. Following the recent talks, Chinese representatives indicated that both sides had achieved consensus on authorizing the use of the algorithm, which they described as a central sticking point.
Although no definitive buyer has yet been named, media reports have pointed to Oracle as a leading candidate. The US technology company, already involved in hosting TikTok’s US data, may head a consortium that would oversee the platform’s operations and data security domestically. Such an arrangement would allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States without interruption, while addressing national security concerns raised in Congress.
Beyond TikTok, the discussions also yielded broader economic understandings. Chinese officials announced that the two countries had reached what they called a “basic framework consensus” designed not only to resolve the TikTok dispute but also to reduce investment barriers and strengthen bilateral trade cooperation. Analysts suggest that this agreement could mark a step toward stabilizing US-China economic relations, which have been strained by tariffs, technology restrictions, and competing industrial policies.
The agreement, if finalized by Trump and Xi later this week, would represent a significant milestone in the long-running dispute over TikTok. It underscores the platform’s global importance—not only as a social media app with hundreds of millions of American users but also as a flashpoint in the geopolitical competition between the world’s two largest economies.
