Treasury Secretary Bessent says US, China have finalized TikTok deal to be signed Thursday

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the U.S. and China reached a "final deal" on TikTok to let the social media app continue to operate in America.

Bessent made the announcement Sunday on CBS News and said the deal will be finalized Thursday when President Trump and Chinese President Xi during Trump's Asia visit, according to The New York Times. 

"All the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction” he also 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 announced in September that the two countries had reached the framework of a deal for TikTok. It is unclear what other details have been settled more recently or whether Bessent’s remarks signaled substantive changes to the deal.

According to the deal made last month, U.S. investors would own a majority stake in TikTok’s U.S. operations, and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, would own less than 20%. ByteDance would license a copy of the app’s algorithm to the U.S. version of the app, which U.S. officials said would be outside Chinese control.

According to Trump's executive order, the deal would satisfy the terms of a 2024 law, which in effect would ban the app in the U.S. unless ByteDance sold it, amid concerns the China-linked company poses a national security threat.