President Donald Trump spent most of this week promoting Tiktok’s “deals” with China, but experts say that is definitely far from it after sharing details of his call with President Xi Jinping with both sides.
The two leaders spoke on the phone on Friday for the first time in three months, but there was no announcement about the sale of the popular social media app, which has 170 million US users.
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In a post after the Truth Social Call, Trump said, “It was a very good call… I appreciate Tiktok’s approval,” but Beijing’s version wasn’t that clear.
“About Tiktok, China’s position is clear in Xi Jinping. The Chinese government respects the will of the company and welcomes businesses to conduct business negotiations based on market rules, reach solutions consistent with Chinese laws and regulations, and balance profits.”
The experts were not surprised.
“Trump is the type of person who often announces frameworks and deals to do transactions and deals that are still considering a lot of details, and this seems to be another example of that.”
The massive trade deal is likely to wait for Trump and XI to meet bystanders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, which begins on October 31 in Kyoto, South Korea, “if that happens,” Ziemba added.
Despite the lack of specific developments from Friday’s call, experts agree that despite multiple meetings in Geneva, London and more recently Madrid, the speaking leader agrees that it is itself a sign of thawing, especially as XI has previously refused to answer calls with Trump.
“At least they’ve broken the ice for a long time. They seem ready to negotiate other more difficult issues,” says Wei Lian, a professor at the Middlebury International Institute.
Some scholars say it has taken the past few months more than the peak of the Cold War between the US and the former Soviet Union, where leaders of both countries at least owned the hotline.
The call is the deadline for China’s ordinances facing Tiktok’s ownership or a ban in the US, days after Trump’s fourth extension, under overwhelming bipartisan support and laws later upheld by the Supreme Court last year.
Robert Rogoffsky, an adjunct professor of trade and economic diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Services, said Beijing is reluctant to leave the app and “it will be a very complicated transaction” due to the clarity of future owners and the lack of rules regarding it.
“The value of Tiktok is the algorithm that selects us what we want to see, but in a way that has significant control over us,” Rogowsky said.
The focus of Tiktok ownership debate is on data security, but the real issue is the ability to “impact” audiences through algorithms, Rogowsky said.
“Think about the power that is awarded to owners, the power of incredibly sophisticated algorithms that encourage people to view.
Middlebury’s Lean adds that it is unlikely that China would expect a “graceful exit” that would allow both the US and China to get what they want from the deal.
China’s “Stronger, Bolder Stand”
Preventing larger trade contracts on multiple other issues, such as US access to rare earth metals, China’s purchase of Russian oil and access to US semiconductor chips, will have to wait for the two leaders to meet, experts say.
“What’s clear is that Trump himself is not in the space to impose new tariffs on China, reflecting the fact that the US government has complex interests regarding China, and China manages some very important choking points,” Ziemba said, noting China’s detention on important minerals.
“Because China is the way it is,” Rogovsky said.
But Beijing is likely to justify that confidence, he said. He said he mentioned Beijing’s instructions to the business to avoid purchasing chips from US chip giant Nvidia.
“While we were trying to control what chips we went to China, they refused to buy them, probably because they have the technology to design chips that are equally good and cheaper,” he said. Moreover, due to its dependence on China’s rare earth metals, Beijing “feels strong enough to stand up to the United States.”
