Donald Trump said on Friday that in a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, they came close to approving a deal to sell the U.S. business TikTok to a group of investors from the U.S. "I just had a very productive call with Chairman Xi. We made progress on many important issues including (...) approval of the TikTok deal," Trump wrote on Truth Social. - The conversation was very good, we'll talk on the phone again, thank you for the TikTok approval, and we both look forward to meeting at [the international forum] APEC!"

The face-to-face meeting will be the first for the leaders of the world's two largest economies since Trump returned to the White House, Bloomberg emphasizes. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit is scheduled for next month in South Korea.

White House officials said that after the phone call ended, the details of the deal were still being worked out, The Wall Street Journal reported . According to the publication's sources, the resolution of legal issues may take several weeks.

Beijing's version of the agreement sounds more cautious, Bloomberg notes, with Xi backing a commercial solution to the TikTok problem while reiterating that China retains legal authority over the app's key technologies, the WSJ reported, citing Xinhua news agency. "The Chinese government respects the company's will and welcomes commercial negotiations based on market rules to reach a solution that complies with Chinese laws and takes into account the interests of all parties," the agency quoted the Chinese leader as saying. Xi also urged Trump to avoid restrictive trade measures and not to undermine the progress made in previous talks to reduce tensions between the countries. He suggested the US should ensure an "open, fair and non-discriminatory business environment" for Chinese businesses.

TikTok is now owned by China's ByteDance, but Washington has demanded the sale of the social network's U.S. business for national security reasons and threatened to block it if it disobeyed.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor

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