China approves TikTok transfer deal

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Scott Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary, said that China has authorized the transfer agreement for the short video app TikTok. He also added that he expects it to move forward in the next few weeks and months, but he didn't give any further details.

Bessent told the Fox Business Network show Mornings with Maria on Thursday, after US President Donald Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, that "In Kuala Lumpur, we finalized the TikTok agreement in terms of getting Chinese approval, and I would expect that would go forward in the coming weeks and months, and we'll finally see a resolution to that."

Earlier on Thursday, China's Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that the government would address TikTok-related problems with the US in the right way. A representative for China said, "The Chinese side will work with the US side to properly address issues related to TikTok."

ByteDance, a Chinese company, owns TikTok, but the app did not respond right away.

More than 18 months have passed since the US Congress approved a law in 2024 that told TikTok's Chinese owners to sell the service's US assets by January 2025. The status of the app utilized by 170 million Americans is still unknown.

Last month, Trump signed an executive order saying that the plan to sell TikTok's US business to a group of US and worldwide investors fits the national security conditions laid out in the 2024 law. They have 120 days to finish the deal. He also put off enforcing the ordinance until January 20, 2026.

The US company's security partners will retrain and keep an eye on the algorithm, and the new joint venture will be in charge of running it.

As part of the deal for TikTok's US operations, ByteDance will appoint one of the seven board members for the new company, while Americans will fill the other six seats.

According to the law, ByteDance would have to sell its US assets by January 2025 or TikTok US would have to be shut down. This means that ByteDance would possess less than 20% of TikTok US.

This month, US Representative John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, claimed that a licensing agreement for the use of the TikTok algorithm as part of ByteDance's offer to sell US assets of the short video app would raise "serious concerns."