Washington: US President Donald Trump is expected to talk with Chinese leader Xi Jinping Friday in a push to finalise a deal to allow the popular social media app TikTok to keep operating in the United States.
The call also may offer clues about whether the two leaders might meet in person to hash out a final agreement to end their trade war and provide clarity on where relations between the world’s two superpowers may be headed.
It would be the second call with Xi since Trump returned to the White House and launched sky-high tariffs on China, triggering back-and-forth trade restrictions that strained ties between the two largest economies. But Trump has expressed willingness to negotiate trade deals with Beijing, notably for the social video platform that faces a US ban unless its Chinese parent company sells its controlling stake.
The two men also spoke in June to defuse tensions over China’s restrictions on the export of rare earth elements, used in everything from smartphones to fighter jets.
“I’m speaking with President Xi, as you know, Friday, having to do with TikTok and also trade,” Trump said Thursday. “And we’re very close to deals on all of it.”
He said his relationship with China is “very good” but noted that Russia’s war in Ukraine could end if European countries put higher tariffs on China. Trump didn’t say if he planned to raise tariffs on Beijing over its purchase of Moscow’s oil, as he has done with India.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington Thursday didn’t confirm the call or any upcoming summit between the leaders, but spokesperson Liu Pengyu said “heads-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance for China-US relations.”
Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center, predicted a positive discussion.
“Both sides have strong desire for the leadership summit to happen, while the details lie in the trade deal and what can be achieved for both sides from the summit,” Sun said.
Following a US-China trade meeting earlier this week in Madrid, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the sides reached a framework deal on TikTok’s ownership, but Trump and Xi likely would finalise it Friday.
Trump, who has credited the app with helping him win another term, has extended a deadline several times for the app to be spun off from its Chinese parent company ByteDance. It is a requirement to allow TikTok to keep operating in the US under a law passed last year seeking to address data privacy and national security concerns.
Trump said TikTok “has tremendous value” and the US “has that value in its hand because we’re the ones that have to approve it.”
US officials have been concerned about ByteDance’s roots and ownership, pointing to laws in China that require Chinese companies to hand over data requested by the government. Another concern is the proprietary algorithm that populates what users see on TikTok.
Chinese officials said Monday that a consensus was reached on authorization of the “use of intellectual property rights,” including the algorithm, and that the two sides agreed on entrusting a partner with handling U.S. user data and content security.
Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, says TikTok’s data and algorithm must be “truly in American hands” to comply with the law.
Top US and Chinese officials have held four rounds of trade talks between May and September, with another likely in the coming weeks. Both sides have paused sky-high tariffs and pulled back from harsh export controls, but many issues remain unresolved.
Trump in the call “will likely seek to make it appear that the United States has the upper hand in trade negotiations,” said Ali Wyne, senior research and advocacy adviser on US-China issues at the International Crisis Group.
Xi “will likely seek to underscore China’s economic leverage and warn that continued progress in bilateral relations will hinge on an easing of US tariffs, sanctions and export controls,” Wyne said.
No deals have been announced on tech export restrictions, Chinese purchases of US agricultural products or fentanyl. The Trump administration has imposed additional 20% tariffs on Chinese goods linked to allegations that Beijing has failed to stem the flow of the chemicals used to make opioids.
Trump’s second-term trade war with Beijing has cost U.S. farmers one of their top markets. From January through July, American farm exports to China fell 53 per cent compared with the same period last year. The damage was even greater in some commodities: US sorghum sales to China, for instance, were down 97 per cent.
Josh Gackle, chairman of the American Soybean Association, said he would be following the outcome of Friday’s call because China, the biggest foreign buyer of US beans, has paused purchases for this year’s new crop.
“There’s still time. It’s encouraging that the two countries continue to talk,” Gackle said. “I think there’s frustration growing at the farmer level that they haven’t been able to reach a deal yet.
