China says it will work with US to resolve issues related to TikTok
[October 30, 2025] By
BARBARA ORTUTAY
President Donald Trump's meeting Thursday with China’s top leader Xi
Jinping produced a raft of decisions to help dial back trade tensions,
but no agreement on TikTok's ownership.
“China will work with the U.S. to properly resolve issues related to
TikTok,” China's Commerce Ministry said after the meeting.
It gave no details on any progress toward ending uncertainty about the
fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the U.S.
The Trump administration had been signaling that it may have finally
reached a deal with Beijing to keep TikTok running in the U.S.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had said on CBS's “Face the Nation” on
Sunday that the two leaders will “consummate that transaction on
Thursday in Korea.”
Wide bipartisan majorities in Congress passed — and President Joe Biden
signed — a law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if it did not find a
new owner to replace China's ByteDance. The platform went dark briefly
on a January deadline but on his first day in office, Trump signed an
executive order to keep it running while his administration tries to
reach an agreement for the sale of the company.
Three more executive orders followed, as Trump, without a clear legal
basis, extended deadlines for a TikTok deal. The second was in April,
when White House officials believed they were nearing a deal to spin off
TikTok into a new company with U.S. ownership. That fell apart when
China backed out after Trump announced sharply higher tariffs on Chinese
products. Deadlines in June and September passed, with Trump saying he
would allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States in a way
that meets national security concerns.
Trump’s order was meant to enable an American-led group of investors to
buy the app from China’s ByteDance, though the deal also requires
China’s approval.
However, TikTok deal is “not really a big thing for Xi Jinping,” said
Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the German Marshall Fund's
Indo-Pacific program, during a media briefing Tuesday. “(China is) happy
to let (Trump) declare that they have finally kept a deal. Whether or
not that deal will protect the data of Americans is a big question going
forward.”
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A view of the TikTok app logo, in Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 28, 2020. (AP
Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)
 “A big question mark for the United
States, of course, is whether this is consistent with U.S. law since
there was a law passed by Congress,” Glaser said.
About 43% of U.S. adults under the age of 30 say they regularly get
news from TikTok, higher than any other social media app, including
YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, according to a Pew Research Center
report published in September.
A recent Pew Research Center survey found that about one-third of
Americans said they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March
2023. Roughly one-third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar
percentage said they weren’t sure.
Among those who said they supported banning the social media
platform, about 8 in 10 cited concerns over users’ data security
being at risk as a major factor in their decision, according to the
report.
The security debate centers on the TikTok recommendation algorithm —
which has steered millions of users into an endless stream of video
shorts. China has said the algorithm must remain under Chinese
control by law. But a U.S. regulation that Congress passed with
bipartisan support said any divestment of TikTok would require the
platform to cut ties with ByteDance.
American officials have warned the algorithm — a complex system of
rules and calculations that platforms use to deliver personalized
content — is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, but
no evidence has been presented by U.S. officials proving that China
has attempted to do so.
___
Associated Press Writer Fu Ting contributed to this story from
Washington.
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