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A flurry of diplomacy, and a possible TikTok deal?

Donald Trump yet again suspended the ban on TikTok, and there is a China-U.S. deal for TikTok afoot, but the only thing it seems everyone agrees on is that there is a “framework” for it:

“A framework deal” was reached between China and the U.S. for the ownership of TikTok, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said after trade talks last weekend in Madrid, in Spain. Bessent also “expressed confidence” that a trade deal with China is near, and said that details of the TikTok deal “will be confirmed in a Friday call” between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

At a press conference in Madrid, Wáng Jìngtāo 王京涛, Deputy Director of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, said the deal included “licensing the algorithm and other intellectual property rights, and that TikTok owner ByteDance would “entrust the operation of TikTok’s U.S. user data and content security.”

Bloomberg reported that “TikTok’s U.S. operations would be acquired by a consortium that includes Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz and private equity firm Silver Lake Management,” citing “people familiar with the matter.”

In his Interconnected newsletter, investor Kevin Xu wrote that the deal could represent “the contours of a roadmap and path, however murky and fickle, for other Chinese technologies to flow to the U.S. without too much political headache.”

Beijing has commitment issues

The Chinese language report in the Communist Party newspaper, the People’s Daily, is perhaps the least committal of the reports: “The two sides…reached a basic framework consensus on properly resolving TikTok-related issues through cooperation, reducing investment barriers, and encouraging relevant economic and trade cooperation. The two sides will consult on the relevant outcome documents and carry out their respective domestic approval procedures.”

And therein lies the rub: The official Chinese language is extremely vague. No doubt the negotiating Chinese officials know Trump could change his mind at any time for any reason, and they are sick of being jerked around.

Soy bean snub and other irritants

There are also many other issues the U.S. and China are far away from working out that could affect a TikTok deal:

• “China’s snub of U.S. soybeans is a crisis for American farmers,”