TikTok deal approved, will visit China next year: Trump after call with Xi

US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held their first phone call in three months on Friday, making headway on a long-pending agreement to keep TikTok online in the United States while discussing trade, tariffs, and other flashpoints straining ties between Washington and Beijing.

Trump confirmed the call on his social media platform Truth Social, describing it as “very productive.” “We made progress on many very important issues including trade, fentanyl, the need to bring the war between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok deal,” he said.

Trump further announced that both leaders had agreed to meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea next month, with reciprocal visits to



China and the United States planned for early next year. “The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC,” Trump added.

The future of TikTok’s US operations has been a sticking point in Washington–Beijing ties, with the US Congress ordering the app to be shut down for American users by January 2025 unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells its US assets. Trump, who credits TikTok for helping him win another term, has repeatedly extended the deadline, while negotiations continued.

Defending the app on Thursday, Trump said, “TikTok has tremendous value — and the United States has that value in its hand because we’re the ones that have to approve it.”