It feels like Groundhog Day once again for TikTok in the U.S., with the platform’s fourth extended deadline to be sold off to a U.S.-based partner, or face expulsion from the region, set to expire on December 16th.
And despite the White House approving a TikTok sell-off deal, and assuring Americans that the app would continue to be in operation, with this last extension merely a formality to finalize the details of the sale, there has still been no confirmation of any sale of TikTok to a U.S. entity, with the Chinese government refusing to sign off on any deal at this stage.
Which means that, once again, Americans will face the prospect of TikTok going dark in a couple of weeks. Or President Trump will just extend the deadline once again, under the promise of a pending deal.
Which may or may not be close, because based on what we’ve heard from U.S. negotiators, they really have no idea how the Chinese government is going to rule on a sell-off.
Back in October, after a meeting with Chinese trade officials in Kuala Lumpur, within which the U.S. delegation was confident of securing final sign-off on a U.S. TikTok sale, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that:
“We finalized the TikTok agreement in terms of getting Chinese approval, and I would expect that would go forward in the coming weeks and months, and we’ll finally see a resolution to that.”
Yet, that approval has never materialized, with Chinese state media reporting that officials had agreed to “appropriately address issues related to TikTok,” while also noting that various other elements of U.S.-China trade would need to be resolved as part of broader negotiations.
So while Chinese officials have been open to discussion, there’s nothing to suggest that they’re going to approve the sell-off of a Chinese company to a U.S. owner, at least not without adequate trade compensation in return.
What that might be, we don’t know, though some reports have indicated that the CCP is seeking President Trump’s support of China’s ownership claim over Taiwan, something that the U.S. has long opposed, in support of Taiwan’s independence. More recently, Chinese officials have expressed concerns about America’s latest trade deals with Malaysia and Cambodia, which also include language “that encourages the countries to align with Washington on national security issues, including export controls, investment screening and sanctions.”
Which Chinese officials have long warned against, and it does seem like at least some of these issues could be built into any TikTok sell-off plan, if the U.S. is to win CCP approval.
Which we don’t know that it ever will, but back in October, when President Trump held a media event to announce that he’d saved TikTok, he certainly seemed confident that a deal was just a matter of time.
How much time, I guess, is the real question.
It would certainly be a PR win for Trump, who could tout that he’s saved the app to boost his appeal with young voters, and the CCP likely knows how valuable it is for the President in this respect. Which could be why they’re holding out, looking for more to be added into the deal to secure its sign-off on the arrangement.
Either way, prepare for the TikTok sale discussions to ramp up once again, as we have only two weeks till the app is either sold off or banned in the U.S., or Trump issues yet another executive order to keep things as they are.
