Scott Bessent confirms China agreed to TikTok deal
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the Chinese government has agreed to a deal to transfer tiktok ownership to new owners.The agreement was finalized in Madrid, with details set to be completed by a meeting of leaders in Korea. Bessent clarified that the deal does not involve changes to existing U.S. restrictions on semiconductor exports or Chinese investments. The move comes amid longstanding U.S. concerns over TikTok’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party, with previous bans and divestiture deadlines imposed under former President Donald Trump and pursued further under President Joe Biden. TikTok challenged the ban legally but faced a Supreme Court ruling upholding the government’s position. The buyer involved in the transaction has not yet been publicly disclosed.
Scott Bessent confirms China agreed to TikTok deal
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Sunday that the Chinese government has agreed to a deal to sell TikTok to new ownership.
“We reached a final deal on TikTok. We reached one in Madrid, and I believe that as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction on Thursday in Korea,” Bessent said on CBS News’s Face the Nation in a prerecorded interview that aired Sunday.
CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan followed up by asking about the details of the deal. By Sunday, the buyer had not been made public.
“Margaret, I’m not part of the commercial side of the transaction,” Bessent said. “My remit was to get the Chinese to agree to approve the transaction, and I believe we successfully accomplished that over the past two days.”
Bessent confirmed that neither the current United States restrictions on exports of semiconductor chips nor the restrictions on Chinese investment in the U.S. were a part of the deal to take TikTok ownership away from the Chinese Communist Party.
Lawmakers have long opposed TikTok’s algorithm because the app’s parent company, ByteDance, has ties to the Chinese Communist Party. While the TikTok ban went into effect as expected on Jan. 19, hours after the app stopped service in the U.S., Donald Trump extended the deadline to divest three times.
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TikTok hadn’t pursued divestiture when then-President Joe Biden signed the ban into law, and it opted to challenge the ban legally. However, the Supreme Court ruled the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act did not violate the platform’s First Amendment rights. Trump has supported TikTok ever since he gained over 15.2 million followers on his TikTok account, which he launched while campaigning for his second term.
The Washington Examiner reached out to TikTok for comment.
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