US President Donald Trump has announced plans to initiate discussions with China on Monday or Tuesday regarding a potential deal on the sale of TikTok.
He added that the US "pretty much" has a deal on the sale of a popular short-video app.
“I think we’re gonna start Monday or Tuesday ... talking to China – perhaps President Xi or one of his representatives – but we would, we pretty much have a deal,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
The talks are expected to take place on either July 7th or July 8th, with Chinese President Xi Jinping or his representatives in attendance.
The proposed deal to spin off TikTok’s US operations into a new US-based firm had been in the works earlier this year but was put on hold following China’s disapproval of Trump’s steep tariffs on Chinese goods.
The deadline for ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, to divest its US assets has previously been moved to September 17th.
When asked how confident he was that China would agree to the deal, Trump said: "I'm not confident, but I think so."
"I think the deal is good for China, and it's good for us" Trump said. "And for us, it's money ... we make a lot of money if the deal goes through."
Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court upheld a bipartisan law requiring TikTok’s sale. The legislation was signed under the Biden administration, and scheduled to take effect the day before Trump's inauguration in January.
However, Trump has since extended the deadline three times to allow additional time for the deal to go through.
“As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in June.
Chinese officials perceive the ban attempts as part of a larger US effort to push back against China’s technological advancement, rather than address genuine security concerns.
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