New Delhi: The United States and China are getting close to an agreement on TikTok, but the deal might depend on whether Washington agrees to Beijing’s trade-related demands, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday before heading into another round of talks in Madrid.
The discussions between the two delegations are focused on TikTok’s U.S. operations, which parent company ByteDance may be forced to sell. At the same time, the talks are covering wider trade issues, including tariffs and economic policy.
“Our Chinese counterparts have put forward some very tough demands,” Bessent told reporters alongside U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
“We’ll see how far we can go, but we’re not going to risk national security for a social media app.”
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng is leading Beijing’s team. The talks, held at Madrid’s historic Palacio de Santa Cruz, are the fourth round in as many months. Sunday’s session focused on trade tensions and the looming TikTok deadline.
The U.S. has set September 17 as the cut-off date for ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. business or face a ban. Many observers believe the most likely outcome will be another extension of that deadline.
Bessent said progress had been made on technical points, but finding common ground on bigger issues would be harder. Whether the TikTok deadline gets pushed back depends largely on how Monday’s negotiations go.
From China’s side, Greer noted, TikTok is tied up with broader concerns like tariffs and restrictions put in place over the years. “But we’re not in a position to roll back every action the U.S. has taken,” he added.
Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian repeated Beijing’s standard line: “China’s position on TikTok has been stated many times.”
Expectations Still Low
The two countries have been meeting in European cities since May to ease tensions that began when former President Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods. China responded with heavy duties of its own and briefly stopped exporting rare earth materials to the U.S.
In July, at a meeting in Stockholm, both sides agreed to a 90-day trade truce, which lowered some tariffs and resumed rare-earth exports.
Still, experts are not expecting a major breakthrough in Madrid. “I don’t think anything big will happen unless Trump and President Xi sit down one-on-one,” said William Reinsch of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He added that Beijing would likely hold off on such a meeting until it sees movement on U.S. chip export restrictions.
For now, the Madrid talks are seen as a chance for both sides to test each other’s positions and understand where the “red lines” are.
Bessent will head to London next to meet UK Finance Minister Rachel Reeves before Trump’s state visit begins on Wednesday.
Even if the TikTok issue remains unresolved, Bessent said it won’t harm overall U.S.-China relations. “At the top level, things remain strong,” he said. “Ambassador Greer and I have great respect for our counterparts.”
