President Trump gave his formal blessing on Thursday to a deal for a consortium of mostly U.S. investors to take over the short video app TikTok, signing an executive order green-lighting the spinoff and saying it has "good controls" in terms of security and safety. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, but a law passed last year requires the parent company to divest or the app will be banned in the United States over national security concerns.
US president Donald Trump said he plans to meet Chinese Premier Xi Jinping in South Korea next month following a phone call in which the Chinese leader also approved of a deal to take control of TikTok's US operations. Trump wrote on Truth Social the call was "productive" and the approval was "appreciated", adding that he would travel to China next year after the two meet.