Overview

• Chinese state media confirmed the leaders spoke by phone on Sept. 19, focusing on TikTok’s future in the U.S. and broader trade tensions, in their first known call in three months.
• Trump said the discussion was productive and that progress was made on the approval of a TikTok deal, while China’s readout stressed market rules and warned against unilateral trade restrictions.
• Officials say negotiators in Madrid reached a framework on ownership for the leaders to finalize, with reporting indicating TikTok’s U.S. assets would shift to American owners and may continue using ByteDance’s algorithm.
• No public terms have been released, and any arrangement would still require Chinese regulatory sign-off and likely face scrutiny from Congress over ownership, control of the algorithm and data security.
• The call also covered trade issues and set the stage for an in-person meeting at the APEC summit in South Korea at the end of October, with tariff pauses in place as disputes over agriculture, technology and fentanyl persist.