The U.S. secured a breakthrough on TikTok by narrowing talks and convincing Beijing it was prepared to shut the app down, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News at the conclusion of two days of negotiations in Spain.
The framework agreement, expected to be finalized Friday in a call between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, would place TikTok under U.S. control while addressing Beijing’s desire to preserve “Chinese characteristics,” Bessent said.
“The Chinese wanted to make it into a bigger trade negotiation—everything except the kitchen sink—and we kept it narrowly focused on TikTok,” he said. “If there hadn’t been a deal, then TikTok would’ve gone dark in 48 hours—and they were very, very surprised by that.”
Trump’s Authority — and Beijing’s Miscalculation
Bessent said in the interview with Breitbart News that the deal was possible only because Trump empowered his negotiators to act decisively and backed their willingness to let TikTok go dark.
“President Trump gave Ambassador [Jamieson] Greer and myself wide-ranging authority,” Bessent said. “President Trump was willing to let TikTok go dark. That’s what shocked them.”
Chinese officials entered the Madrid talks assuming Washington would not risk a shutdown, Bessent said. Progress accelerated only after U.S. negotiators made clear the administration was prepared to walk away.
Until now, Beijing had shown little interest in bowing to U.S. demands that TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, divest its U.S. operations. The Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese regulators even opened an antitrust probe into U.S. chipmaker Nvidia during the talks, partly to give Xi political cover at home for agreeing to a deal.
TikTok, Politics, and National Security
The agreement comes as Trump faces a statutory deadline requiring TikTok’s U.S. operations to be divested on national security grounds. The deadline has already been extended several times, and Trump has credited the app with boosting his appeal among younger voters in the 2024 election.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Beijing’s concession was seen as tied to its campaign to secure a state visit from Trump. Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday that “the relationship remains a very strong one” and confirmed he will speak with Xi at week’s end.
The TikTok framework leaves larger issues unresolved. In his interview, Bessent said the current 90-day pause on tariff increases expires Nov. 10 and that the two sides will likely meet again before then, likely in Europe.
China has signaled interest in longer pauses and reciprocal purchase agreements. “Would we be willing to go to a longer tariff pause rather than 90 days?” a person familiar with the matter said, describing what China is looking for. “Or could we both say, here’s $30 billion of things we’d like you to buy, here’s $30 billion of things we’d like you to exempt from tariffs.”
Bessent said that the larger challenge is structural. “The big deal is them realizing they have to rebalance their economy toward domestic consumption,” he said. “Thus far, they haven’t shown much inclination toward that.”
Bloomberg reported that high-level engagement between Washington and Beijing has intensified ahead of a potential Trump–Xi summit at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in South Korea later this fall. Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held calls with their Chinese counterparts.
Bessent told reporters in Madrid: “It remains to be seen whether a trade deal can be done with China before the APEC summit in Korea.”
Inside the Room
Bessent, in his interview with Breitbart, credited both Trump’s decision to empower his team and Greer’s deep trade experience for the outcome.
“President Trump creates respect for for himself for the US and for his trade team,” Bessent said. “We’re a good team. I create the framework, but Jamieson is an encyclopedia of trade policy … he almost knows what they’re going to say before they say it.”
Talks in Madrid were “respectful, wide-ranging, and in-depth,” Bessent said, but the dynamic was markedly different from earlier U.S.–China encounters. “Our meetings now are great respect with both sides. They are tough, hard negotiators … but there’s never disrespect,” he said, contrasting it with what he described as an “aura of weakness and discombobulation” under the Biden administration.
Global Implications
Bessent told Breitbart that excess Chinese exports are increasingly landing in Europe, straining ties with Brussels. “There’s just not enough demand in the world … the U.S. trade deficit with China, thanks to President Trump, is going to drop a third this year.”
He added that Beijing’s support for Russia has further clouded relations. “The Chinese are supporting Russia—buying Russian oil, sending dual-use technologies. If China stopped supporting Russia, the war would be over in weeks.”
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