By Reuters

Copyright sabcnews

The United States and China are close to an agreement on social media platform TikTok but a deal could hinge on Chinese demands for trade concessions, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says as a second day of talks got underway in Madrid.

The US and China delegations are discussing the divestment from TikTok by the Chinese owner, Bytedance, as part of broader talks on tariffs and economic policy.

“Our Chinese counterparts have come with a very aggressive ask,” Bessent told reporters alongside US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer just before Monday’s talks began.

“We will see if we can get there at present. We are not willing to sacrifice national security for a social media app,” he said.

The US-China negotiations at the Spanish foreign ministry’s baroque Palacio de Santa Cruz are the fourth round of talks in four months to address strained trade ties and a looming divestiture deadline for TikTok.

They take place as Washington demands that its allies place tariffs on imports from China over Chinese purchases of Russian oil, which Beijing, on Monday, said was an attempt at coercion.

“This is a typical act of unilateral bullying and economic coercion, a serious violation of the consensus reached by the Chinese and U.S. heads of state in their phone call, and could severely impact global trade as well as the stability of industrial and supply chains,” a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson said in a press conference in Beijing.

The most likely result of the Madrid talks is seen as another extension of a deadline for TikTok owner, ByteDance to divest its U.S. operations by September 17 or face a US shutdown.

Bessent said both sides had made good progress on technical details but reaching a deal on other issues would be challenging. Extending the TikTok divestment deadline would depend largely on how talks went on Monday, he said.

“From the Chinese perspective, they view as part and parcel of the potential TikTok deal a variety of matters, whether it’s tariffs or other measures that have been taken over years, “Greer said. “We still have to grind through negotiations and discussions of the common understanding, and I don’t think this is the moment to just pull all those things.”

Chinese Foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China had no new information to give.

“Regarding TikTok, China has repeatedly stated its position,” Lin said at a press conference in Beijing on Monday. Adding further tension, China’s market regulator said, on Monday that a preliminary investigation of Nvidia had found the U.S. chip giant had violated its anti-monopoly law. The probe is widely seen as a retaliatory shot against Washington’s curbs on the Chinese chip sector.

Delegations led by Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He have met in European cities since May to try to resolve differences that prompted U.S. President Trump to raise tariffs on Chinese imports and sparked tit-for-tat measures, including similarly high import duties by China on U.S. goods and a halt in the flow of rare earths to the United States. The Trump administration, however, faces a ruling from the US Supreme Court that could strike down the US tariffs on Chinese goods imposed this year, potentially weakening Trump’s leverage over Beijing.

A ruling is expected by early 2026. The delegations last met in Stockholm in July, where they agreed to extend for 90 days a trade truce that sharply reduced triple-digit retaliatory tariffs on both sides and restarted the rare-earth exports from China to the United States.

Experts had low expectations of a significant breakthrough in Madrid. “I’m not expecting anything substantive between the United States and China unless and until there is a one-on-one meeting between Trump and (Chinese President) Xi,” said William Reinsch, a senior trade adviser at Washington think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Setting that up is really what these talks are all about.”

Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but Reinsch said the Chinese would not agree to such a meeting until they knew the outcome and were pushing for further easing of U.S. export controls on chips and other high-tech goods.

Even if a deal over Chinese divestment from TikTok was not reached it would not affect relations, Bessent added. “It’s still very good at the highest levels,” “Ambassador Greer and myself have great respect for all counterparts.”