A deal for the Chinese parent company of popular video-sharing app TikTok to sell its US operations would see the creation of a board dominated by Americans, the White House said on Saturday.
“There will be seven seats on the board that controls the app in the United States, and six of those seats will be Americans,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.
She said a deal could be signed “in the coming days.”
The United States has forcefully sought to take TikTok’s US operations out of the hands of Chinese parent company ByteDance for national security reasons. Under President Donald Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, the US Congress passed a law to force ByteDance to sell its US operations or face a ban on the app.
US policymakers, including in Trump’s first term, have warned that China could use TikTok to mine data from Americans or exert influence on what they see on social media.
But Trump turned to the platform, which is hugely popular with young Americans, to garner support during his ultimately successful 2024 presidential campaign. The Republican president has repeatedly pushed off implementation of the ban while a deal has been sought.
Investors reportedly being eyed to take over the app include Oracle, the tech firm owned by Larry Ellison — one of the world’s richest people — and a major Trump supporter.
Leavitt seemed to confirm Oracle’s participation.
“The data and privacy will be led by one of America’s greatest tech companies, Oracle, and the algorithm will also be controlled by America as well,” she told Fox News. “So all of those details have already been agreed upon. Now we just need this deal to be signed.”
Earlier, China stuck to its stance on the future of TikTok in the United States, a day after Trump said a deal to switch ownership was progressing.
“China’s position on TikTok is clear: The Chinese government respects the wishes of the enterprise, and welcomes it to carry out commercial negotiations in accordance with market rules to reach a solution compliant with China’s laws and regulations, and strikes a balance of interests,” China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement, reiterating a position it has maintained over the past week.
Questions remain, including the precise ownership structure of TikTok, how much control China will retain over the app’s inner workings, and what Beijing gets from backing down and letting the US muscle in on one of China’s most successful companies.
Progress over the future of the social media app, which has 170 million US users, is seen as key to unlocking concessions in other areas — from aeroplanes to soybeans — as the world’s two largest economies chart a path beyond their current tariff truce.
“It is hoped that the US side will work towards the same goal as China, earnestly fulfil its corresponding commitments, and provide an open, fair, equitable and non-discriminatory business environment for the continued operation of Chinese enterprises in the US, including TikTok,” the Commerce Ministry statement added.
Since a framework deal was struck in Madrid earlier this week, Chinese officials and state media have called it a “win-win”, promising to review TikTok’s technology exports and intellectual property licensing.
The framework deal was one hurdle Trump needed to clear to keep TikTok open. The US Congress had originally ordered the app to be shut down for US users by January 2025 if its US assets were not sold by Chinese owner ByteDance.
He Yadong, a spokesperson for China’s Commerce Ministry, reiterated China’s hope that the US reduce the barriers to trade facing Chinese firms, when asked what Beijing had got out of the Madrid deal during a news conference on Thursday.
