SCIENCE & TECH: China using TikTok as a pawn to squeeze Trump in trade talks: sources

President Trump recently said he found a buyer for TikTok, the controversial Chinese-owned short-video app but his real problem is with the seller, On The Money has learned.

TikTok is being used as a pawn in the US-Chinese trade negotiations by Beijing, which knows that Trump wants the app to remain operating in the US, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

There will be no sale of TikTok to American investors — a move that is needed to conform to a US law that bans the app from operating domestically — until Chinese President Xi Jinping is confident he has extracted as much as he can in terms of a favorable trade deal with the White House, these people add.

“Trump still doesn’t have a seller,” is how one person involved in the talks described the situation.
The problem, the source said, is that “Xi is a no-show” in putting TikTok front and center in the broader trade talks, at least up to this point.

Which is why bankers and investors involved in the TikTok dealmaking who keep tabs on the trade machinations were more than a little perplexed when Trump, appearing on Fox News on Sunday, said: “We have a buyer for TikTok. … I’ll tell you in two weeks.”

He added that China will “probably” allow the sale to “very, very wealthy people. It’s a group of wealthy people.”

Having “very wealthy people” willing to step up and buy TikTok is nothing new.

In April, a group of wealthy investors and tech honchos were poised to place a bid with the Chinese to buy the US based operations until Trump launched a trade war against Beijing, hitting China with 145% tariffs on imported goods.

That number has since been lowered as both sides negotiate other trade issues as part of a broader deal.
As for buyers, this person said either tech giant Oracle, co-founded by Trump pal Larry Ellison, the previous investor group, or a combination of both would be interested in taking a controlling stake in TikTok’s US operations and stop it from going dark.

In 2024, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers, fearful that the Chinese use TikTok to spy on US citizens, passed legislation, signed by former President Biden, that the company would cease operating on US app stores unless the Chinese gave up control of the platform.

The ban was to go into effect Jan. 19, the day before Trump’s inauguration.

Trump once wanted TikTok banned but became a fan after the 2024 election, where he believed pro-Trump spots on the app helped him win over younger voters, which represent the majority of TikTok’s users.

He has been seeking a solution since returning to the White House, issuing a series of executive orders to keep the ban from going into effect despite prominent Republicans arguing that the law is still being flouted by Trump’s delaying tactics and even the latest deal iteration.

Under the terms of the last negotiated deal, the Chinese wanted a minority stake in the new US-investor controlled company and continued ownership of TikTok’s crown jewel – its technology, the algorithm that funnels videos based on preferences to users, which lawmakers claim is used to spy on US citizens.

The Chinese have long denied the spying issue, but US lawmakers remain concerned that majority US control still doesn’t provide enough protection from alleged spycraft.

That’s one reason it took so long to come up with a structure that satisfied all the competing constituencies, and why even after finding a buyer that appeals to the seller, TikTok might still be banned in the coming months unless Trump issues yet another extension after the current one expires in mid-September.