TikTok talks upended by China, tariffs

Popular app at centre of geopolitical tussle

- LAUREN HIRSCH DAVID MCCABE SAPNA MAHESHWARI

ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, along with some of its US investors and officials in Washington had coalesced around a new ownership structure for the popular app, four people familiar with the situation said.

That structure, the people said, would help TikTok satisfy the terms of a federal law that required the app to find a new owner in order to address national security concerns, or face a ban in the United States.

Under the plan, new investors would own 50% of a new American TikTok entity, while Chinese investors would retain less than 50%, the limit specified by the law, two of the people said. ByteDance told the White House that Beijing was comfortable with the general structure, one of the people said.

A Thursday morning, a version of a draft executive order that President Donald Trump outlined that the broad strokes of the deal was circulating, according to a copy that was viewed by The New York Times.

Then the plan hit a wall. ByteDance called the White House with the news: Now that Trump had announced a slew of tariffs on Chinese imports, the Chinese government would not let the TikTok deal proceed, two of the people said.

In response, Trump bought the app more time. On Friday, he paused enforcement of the federal law, extending the deadline for a TikTok deal into mid-June.