Today's Edition
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping spoke by phone on Friday, Chinese state media and a US official said, as they seek an agreement to help keep the video app TikTok online in the US and ease tensions between two superpowers locked in a standoff over trade.
A possible deal was at the top of the agenda alongside trade for the leaders' first known call in three months, which began at 8 am Eastern time (1200 GMT), the official said.
The report from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV did not provide any details of the conversation and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump and Xi's effort to steady relations coincides with discussions on a potential in-person summit between Xi and Trump during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea on October 30-November 1, Reuters has reported.
Beijing's final approval of a framework deal reached by the two sides earlier this week is one of the hurdles Trump needed to clear to keep TikTok open.
Congress had ordered the app shut down for US users by January 2025 if its US assets weren't sold by Chinese owner ByteDance.
Trump has declined to enforce the law while his administration looks for a new owner, but also because he worries a ban on the app would anger TikTok's huge user base and disrupt political communications.
"I like TikTok; it helped get me elected," Trump said during a press conference on Thursday. "TikTok has tremendous value. The United States has that value in its hand because we're the ones that have to approve it."
Key questions about the deal remain. It's not clear the precise ownership structure of the company, how much control China will retain or whether Congress will approve.
The deal would transfer TikTok's US assets to US owners from ByteDance, Reuters has reported.
TRUMP HAS A LIST OF DEMANDS
Trump has positioned his foreign policy approach as one of peace-seeking and deal-making.
Relations remain icy between the world's two biggest economies.
"We're pretty close to a deal," Trump said on Thursday, in an apparent reference to larger trade talks. "We may do an extension with China, but it's an extension based on the same terms that we have right now, which are pretty good terms."
Other key issues include competition between both sides on semiconductors and other advanced technologies. The US wants more Chinese purchases of US-harvested soybeans and Boeing airplanes.
