China halted a deal with the United States over TikTok ownership after US President Donald Trump announced wide-ranging tariffs around the world, including Beijing. Trump said that he is signing an executive order to keep TikTok running in the US for another 75 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership.
The order was announced as the White House officials were under the impression that they were nearing a deal for TikTok’s operations to be spun into a new company based in the US and owned and operated by American owners majorly, with China’s ByteDance keeping a minority position in the handling of the application, a source familiar with the matter said.
However, China hit brakes on the deal until negotiations could be made about the trade and tariff rates, a person who spoke on the conditions of anonymity told the Associated Press.