A potential TikTok-US deal will need China's government approval

The post A potential TikTok-US deal will need China's government approval appeared first on Android Headlines.

Apr 9, 2025 - 17:15

Summary: The US extended the deadline for the TikTok ban, but any potential deal still depends on Chinese government approval — which looks unlikely after Trump’s aggressive tariffs. Even if ByteDance agrees to sell, China’s strict export laws on core technologies like TikTok’s algorithm could block the deal entirely.

The deadline for TikTok’s ban just got extended. It seems that despite what Trump claimed, a deal was not finalized before the previous deadline was met. But the better question is, is there a deal to be had? Any TikTok deal is subject to the Chinese government’s approval. Given the current trade war and Trump’s recent tariffs, that’s going to be a hard sell.

China’s government approval is key for the TikTok deal

According to a Reuters report, China said that any deal for TikTok has to comply with the country’s laws. However, according to Reuters’ sources, what China is saying to the media and what’s happening behind closed doors seem to be two very different scenarios. Their sources tell them that China will not approve the deal after Trump’s tariffs. Shocker.

We stated before that getting China to agree to sell TikTok would be a monumental task. China considers TikTok’s algorithm a ‘core’ piece of technology, and under Chinese law, core technologies face heavy restrictions on sales and exports to non-Chinese entities.

This means that even if ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, agreed to sell off its US operations, it still needed Beijing’s blessing for the deal to conclude. While tensions between the US and China were already high, Trump’s recent tariffs that basically pushed China’s tariffs to a staggering 104% certainly did not help.

Trump’s solution

An earlier report suggested that Trump proposed the creation of a new company called TikTok America. US investors would own 50% of the company, while ByteDance and its investors would own the remaining 50%. ByteDance would also get to keep the algorithm and will license it to the new TikTok America company.

Several names popped up as potential bidders for TikTok. This includes YouTuber MrBeast, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Amazon, and Oracle. However, previous reports suggest that Oracle was in the lead and the most likely candidate. That said, China could render all of this moot if it refuses to approve the deal. So, we’ll have to wait and see how the situation plays out.

The post A potential TikTok-US deal will need China's government approval appeared first on Android Headlines.