Trump hopes to settle TikTok's fate on Xi call
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump, who recently accused Xi Jinping of working to "conspire" against the United States, hopes to finalise the fate of video‑sharing app TikTok and make progress on trade talks in a phone call with the Chinese leader on Friday.
"I'm speaking with President Xi, as you know, on Friday, having to do with TikTok, and also trade," Trump said on Thursday in an interview with Fox News. "And we're very close to deals on all of it. And my relationship with China is very good."
The call will be the second between the two men since Trump returned to the White House in January, and the third since the start of the year. On June 5 the US president said Xi had invited him to visit China, and he issued a similar invitation for the Chinese leader to come to the United States. No travel plans have been made.
Ali Wyne, an expert on US‑China relations at the International Crisis Group, predicted each leader will aim to "signal that he has outmanoeuvred the other" in trade talks focused on tariffs.
TikTok
Trump said he hoped to "finalise something on TikTok." He has repeatedly delayed a ban under a law designed to force Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its US operations on national security grounds. Under the deal Trump described, TikTok's US business would be "owned by all American investors, and very rich people and companies."
He said he believes TikTok boosted his appeal to younger voters and helped him win the 2024 election. The president on Tuesday again delayed applying a ban on the app, a decision initially taken under his predecessor, Joe Biden.
The Wall Street Journal reported the possibility of a consortium to control TikTok that would include tech firm Oracle and two California investment funds, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz.
Tariffs
The telephone talks come as the world's two biggest economies seek a compromise on tariffs. Both sides raised levies dramatically during a months‑long dispute earlier this year, disrupting global supply chains. Washington and Beijing later reached a deal to reduce duties, which expires in November, with the US imposing around 30% on some Chinese imports and China applying a 10% tariff on certain US goods.
The meeting follows a major summit this month organised by Xi with the leaders of Russia and India, and an invitation extended to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to observe a military parade in Beijing. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: "Please give my warmest regards to (Russian President) Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as you conspire against the United States of America."
The US leader has imposed punitive tariffs on India for its oil purchases from Moscow and urged European states to sanction China for buying Russian oil, though Washington has not itself sanctioned Beijing. "If they did that in China, I think the war (in Ukraine) would maybe end," Trump told Fox News.
By RSS/AFP
