Trump says talk with China’s Xi yielded progress, including on TikTok : NPR
The Tiktok logo is seen on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen that displays the Tiktok home screen on October 14, 2022, in Boston.
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President Trump said that a call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping has produced progress on a range of thorny bilateral problems on Friday, including the fate of the short Tiktok video platform. He also said that he would meet Xi this fall and go to China at the start of next year.
“I have just finished a very productive call with President XI of China. We have made progress on many very important questions, including trade, fentanyl, the need to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and the approval of the Tiktok agreement,” Trump wrote on social networks.
The Chinese state agency, Xinhua, described the conversation “pragmatic, positive and constructive”.
On Tiktok, he quoted Xi saying that Beijing “respects the wishes of companies and is happy to see companies carry out commercial negotiations on the basis of market rules and to achieve solutions in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations while balancing interest.”
But he added: “China hopes that the United States will provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory commercial environment for Chinese companies investing in the United States”
In a statement published online, Bytedance wrote: “We thank President Xi Jinping and President Donald J. Trump for their efforts to preserve Tiktok in the United States. Bytedance will work in accordance with applicable laws to guarantee that Tiktok remains available for American users via Tiktok US”
The Trump-Xe calls the talks last week between the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister He Lifeng in Madrid, where the two parties announcement They agreed on a “frame“To manage the property of Tiktok.
But from Friday morning, none of the two parties had published details on an agreement, including the American companies involved, if the owner of Tiktok, Bytedance, based in Beijing, would retain a stake, and which would control the precious algorithm of Tiktok.
The negotiation of an agreement was a long and difficult process. Tiktok said The application has 170 million users in the United States – about half of the population – leading to concerns among security analysts and legislators that the Chinese government could repress the owner of Tiktok, the owner of Beijing, Bytedance for data on Americans, or use the platform to influence them.
Congress adopted Last year, forcing Tiktok to disconnect in the United States unless Bytedance will give up control. Tiktok continuedarguing that a prohibition violates the rights of freedom of expression of users, but the law was confirmed in early January by the Supreme Court.
A few hours before the entry into force on January 19, Tiktok briefly was offline In the United States. But the day of the inauguration, Trump expressed An executive decree break the application of the prohibition for 75 days and extend a liability shield Companies that provide back-end support for the video platform or host it in application stores. Trump has since given Tiktok three other extensions when his administration has tried to negotiate an agreement for Bytedance to Divevest and US companies to take control – a series of legal experts interrogated.
Tiktok’s fate is increasingly wrapped in radical trade negotiations Between Washington and Beijing which include strategically thorny subjects like price,, microchips,, Rare Land minerals And the export of chemicals by China used to make the fentanyl opioid synthetic.
The United States and China found themselves in a price spiral earlier this year after the announcement of President Trump of “Liberation Day” prices. The two parties announced that several cycles of reprisal reports in Tit-For-Tat until the American prices on Chinese imports reach 145%, and the Chinese prices on American exports exceeded 125%,, threatening to stop all trade.
During a meeting in Geneva in May, the two parties announced a 90 -day truceLeave price rates and have reduced other commercial barriers, including Chinese mineral deliveries.
In August, Trump published a executive decree To maintain low prices while commercial negotiations continue. Currently, the standard American price rate on Chinese products is 30%, while the rate of China on American products is 10%.
However, there is more at stake than simple trade.
Hong Kong Morning post in southern China reported Last week, China and the United States were in the “last stage” of negotiations for Trump to take a state visit to China, after Beijing sent an official invitation at the beginning of the month.
The leaders of the two best economies in the world spoken in June and agreed from a meeting in person. If Trump goes to China, it will be the country’s first visit by an American president since 2017, when he went to his first mandate.
For Xi, say the analysts, a visit would be a symbolic victory, making us respect and emphasizing his peer status with Trump. This would also likely help to stabilize the bilateral relationship while improving trade relations and rhetoric, which Beijing wanted to ensure because it is struggling with a slow economy.
