China declared that any TikTok deal must comply with Chinese law, reiterating its stance following U.S. President Donald Trump’s 75-day extension for ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations, Reuters reports. 

The extension, signed on April 4, marks Trump’s second delay in enforcing the 2024 law that mandated ByteDance to divest TikTok by January 19, 2025, or face a U.S. ban.

“The specific business arrangements must comply with Chinese law, including the export of technology, which must be approved by the Chinese government,” a spokesperson for China’s commerce ministry states. 

China “opposes practices that ignore the laws of the market economy, plunder by force, and damage the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises,” according to a statement posted on the ministry’s website.

Deal Framework Faces Tariff-Related Hurdles

White House officials believed they were nearing an agreement that would spin off TikTok’s U.S. operations into a new American-based company. The proposed structure would give U.S. investors majority ownership while allowing ByteDance to maintain a minority position.

However, on April 3, ByteDance representatives informed the White House that China would not approve the deal until trade and tariff negotiations could take place. This reversal occurred immediately after Trump announced sweeping tariffs affecting global imports, including those from China.

“We were pretty close to a deal for TikTok,” Trump stated on April 6. “And then China changed the deal because of tariffs. If I gave a little cut in tariffs, they’d have approved that deal in 15 minutes, which shows you the power of tariffs.”

Potential Ownership Structure and Bidders

Under the potential arrangement that Trump and top officials reviewed on April 2, new outside investors would own 50% of TikTok’s U.S. business in a unit spun off from ByteDance. The Chinese company’s existing U.S. investors would own approximately 30%, reducing ByteDance’s stake to just below 20%, per Bloomberg.

The extended deadline provides additional time for potential U.S. buyers to refine their offers. Numerous parties have expressed interest in acquiring TikTok, including AppLovin, Amazon, Wyoming entrepreneur Reid Rasner, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in partnership with billionaire investor Frank McCourt, AI search engine startup Perplexity AI, and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

A ByteDance spokesperson acknowledged ongoing discussions with the U.S. government regarding a “potential solution” but noted that “an agreement has not been executed” and “there are key matters to be resolved.” The company also specified that “any agreement will be subject to approval under Chinese law.”

Reuters notes that the algorithm TikTok relies on is deemed core to ByteDance’s overall operations, and according to a law Beijing implemented in 2020, any export of the algorithm is subject to Chinese government approval.