Talks between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese officials opened Sunday with TikTok at the center. Beijing must approve any sale and has given no sign it will allow ByteDance to part with its core algorithm.
A take from the Wall Street Journal comes one of its journalists, @Lingling_Wei, as floows:
For Washington, TikTok has become a litmus test. Any compromise by Beijing would signal its willingness to make the broader concessions needed to secure a Trump visit. The Madrid negotiations are tied to preparations for a potential leaders’ summit later this year. Xi invited Trump to China in June, but while U.S. officials prefer a late-October APEC meeting in South Korea, Beijing wants the summit on home ground — to control optics and avoid surprises like those seen in Trump’s meeting with Zelensky earlier this year.
To build momentum, Beijing will send Premier Li Qiang to the U.N. General Assembly this month. He is expected to hint that if Trump comes to China this year, Xi would reciprocate by traveling to the U.S. for next year’s G20. For now, China is following its usual playbook: drawn-out talks with few concessions. But by dragging its feet, Beijing risks derailing the very summit it wants.
