U.S. President Donald Trump on the 25th signed an executive order allowing American investors to acquire the U.S. business rights of the Chinese short-form video platform TikTok.
Under the executive order, a new joint venture made up of U.S. investors will acquire TikTok's U.S. business rights, and U.S. software company Oracle will handle the new joint venture's security operations. Earlier, White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, "Americans' data will be stored on servers operated in the United States by Oracle, without access from China."
Vice President JD Vance, who led the negotiations with China, said of the TikTok deal that "there was resistance from China" during the process. He added that the executive order "allows TikTok to continue operating while protecting Americans' data privacy as required by law."
Asked whether China agreed to the sale terms, President Trump said, "I had a very good conversation with President Xi (Jinping)," adding, "I respect him a lot. I hope he respects me a lot as well."
TikTok, which has 170 million U.S. users, has drawn concerns about data theft and hacking because its parent company is China's ByteDance. In response, the U.S. Congress last year passed the "TikTok ban bill," which bans TikTok's service in the United States unless its U.S. business rights are sold to a U.S. company, but President Trump has delayed the law's implementation while negotiating with China.