President Trump says that he “pretty much” has a deal for a sale of CCP propaganda and surveillance app TikTok to an American buyer but has to talk to China about it.
CNN reports or assumes that ByteDance “is under pressure to spin off the short-video app’s US operations by September 17 or face a ban in the United States” (July 7, 2025). If this is pressure, it’s not the pressure felt by someone tied to a bomb trying to get away before the bomb explodes. The original congressionally imposed deadline was set, in April 2024, for January 2025; it has been repeatedly deferred by the president in a manner not provided for in the legislation.
A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, asked about the TikTok talks, said that “China has reiterated its principle and position on issues related to TikTok on multiple occasions.”
When previously asked about the TikTok deal, the Foreign Ministry has urged the US to provide an “open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment” for Chinese businesses, and said that acquisition of businesses should be “independently decided by companies in accordance with market principles.” [The brutal totalitarian Chinese government is a big fan of letting companies independently decide things in accordance with market principles.]
The Chinese government has given little indication that it would approve a forced sale. In early 2023, a Commerce Ministry spokeswoman said in the government’s first direct response to the matter that China would oppose any forced sale of TikTok, citing how a sale or divestiture of the app would involve “exporting technology” and had to be approved by the Chinese government.
The CNN story initially said that Trump had said “that he ‘pretty much’ has a deal with Beijing to bring TikTok into American ownership.” Later in the same story, turns out Trump was saying that “the US ‘pretty much’ has a deal on the sale of the app, though he said he’s ‘not confident’ China would approve the deal.” Be it known throughout the land that the Chinese government is the de facto seller. So there is no deal and no almost-deal. Even if there’s a firm American buyer and ByteDance has okayed a potential deal, there is no deal.
Suppose the Chinese Communist Party believes that it will sooner or later have to let TikTok be taken over by some U.S. company or group of companies if China is to prevent or reverse a ban on TikTok in the United States. Suppose Party officials also believe that later would be better than sooner. At what point would it permit the sale? Not during any period of time during which a corn-puff “deadline,” if we want to use that word, is never taking effect.
