Just days before a looming deadline that could have spelled the end for TikTok in the United States, American and Chinese officials have announced a breakthrough: a framework deal that could finally resolve the app’s fraught ownership and keep it running for its 170 million U.S. users. The agreement, reached over the weekend of September 15, 2025, in Madrid, marks a rare moment of cooperation between Washington and Beijing amid persistent trade tensions and rising technological rivalry.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent broke the news at a press conference in the Spanish capital, where the world’s two largest economies had convened for a fourth round of trade talks since April. “We are not going to talk about the commercial terms of the deal,” Bessent told reporters, as quoted by AP. “It’s between two private parties. But the commercial terms have been agreed upon.” The core objective, he explained, is to transfer TikTok’s U.S. operations from its Chinese parent company ByteDance to an American entity—a move designed to address long-standing national security concerns in the U.S.
China’s international trade representative Li Chenggang confirmed what he called a “basic framework consensus” on resolving TikTok-related issues through cooperation, reducing investment barriers, and promoting broader economic collaboration. “No deal will be made at the expense of our firms’ interests,” Li insisted, according to Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency. He also criticized what he described as the U.S.’s “politicization and weaponization” of technology and trade, warning that China would “never seek any agreement at the expense of principle, the interests of the companies, and international fairness and justice.”
The stakes could hardly be higher. Since the U.S. Congress passed a law in April 2024—later upheld by the Supreme Court—TikTok has been in a legal limbo, required to sell its U.S. business or face a ban. The app even went dark for a day in January 2025 before then-President Donald Trump intervened and issued a 75-day postponement. Trump has since extended the deadline multiple times, with the latest extension set to expire on September 17, 2025—just two days before he and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to speak directly for the first time since June. “An agreement had been reached over a company that young people in our country very much wanted to save,” Trump posted on Truth Social, adding that he would be speaking to Xi on Friday to finalize the deal.
The details of the framework remain closely guarded, but some key points have emerged. Both sides have agreed on the authorization of TikTok’s proprietary algorithm—the secret sauce that determines what users see on the app—as well as entrusting a partner with handling U.S. user data and content security. According to Bessent, the deal “completely respects U.S. national security concerns” while being “fair for the Chinese.” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer echoed this sentiment, stating that the team was “very focused on TikTok and making sure that it was a deal that is fair for the Chinese but also completely respects U.S. national security concerns.”
Yet, skepticism lingers. As BBC reported, experts are still questioning who will control TikTok’s powerful recommendation algorithm and whether American user data will be fully stored and encrypted domestically. Sarah Kreps, director of the Tech Policy Institute at Cornell University, warned, “Until these details are clarified, the risk is that the deal resolves ownership on paper but leaves core vulnerabilities untouched.” Jim Secreto, a former national security official in the Biden administration, emphasized the stakes: “The data TikTok collects from Americans today could help train the models that power China’s military and intelligence capabilities tomorrow.”
Potential American buyers and partners have been circling for months. Oracle, whose co-founder Larry Ellison is a close Trump ally, has emerged as a likely contender to facilitate TikTok’s continued U.S. operations if the deal is finalized, as reported by CBS and BBC. Other names floated in the rumor mill have included venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Amazon, asset management giant Blackstone, YouTube creator MrBeast, and billionaire Frank McCourt. Jeffrey Yass, a U.S. investor with a significant stake in TikTok, reportedly spent millions lobbying to protect the app and donated heavily to Trump’s super PAC, according to NBC News.
The TikTok saga is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. The Madrid talks also touched on unresolved issues such as export controls, Chinese investments in the U.S., and restrictions on chemicals used to make fentanyl—a topic on which both sides reportedly found “extreme agreement,” Bessent noted. But other disputes remain thorny. Trump, in a recent statement, suggested that the war in Ukraine would end if NATO countries stopped buying Russian oil and threatened China with tariffs of 50% to 100% if it continued to trade with Russia. China’s Commerce Ministry shot back, calling the demand “a classic example of unilateral bullying and economic coercion.”
Despite the breakthrough on TikTok, both governments are keeping their cards close to their chests regarding a broader trade deal. The framework deal is “subject to the leaders’ approval,” Greer emphasized, and further extensions of the TikTok ban are not on the table. As AP pointed out, a fifth round of trade negotiations is expected in the coming weeks, and a possible summit between Trump and Xi could take place later this year or early 2026. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea at the end of October is seen as a possible venue for such a meeting.
Some analysts are cautious about expectations. Wendy Cutler, senior vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told AP that while the framework for TikTok is “an important step forward in resolving a lingering bilateral dispute,” there’s “little time to hammer out a meaningful trade agreement.” She expects a series of ad-hoc deliverables rather than a comprehensive deal—perhaps a Chinese commitment to buy more U.S. soybeans, a U.S. pause on new tech export controls, and another 90-day tariff truce extension.
Meanwhile, the political calculus in Washington has shifted. Trump, who once moved to ban TikTok during his first term, now credits the app with helping him reach young voters in the 2024 election. “A Republican never wins youth, but I won youth. I will tell you, TikTok helped me,” he said in a recent Fox News interview. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick echoed the president’s mixed feelings: “The president likes TikTok… But unless it’s owned by Americans and the algorithm is controlled by Americans… that’s got to go.”
For now, TikTok’s fate hangs in the balance, with millions of American users—and the broader U.S.-China relationship—watching closely. If this framework deal holds, it could mark not just the rescue of a wildly popular app, but a rare win-win in a relationship often defined by suspicion and rivalry.