TikTok deal touted as China’s snubs U.S. soybeans
A flurry of U.S.-China diplomacy and talk of a deal, AI and returnee tech talents, the Locknet exported, arctic shipping, 'China ditching the dollar,' interesting links, fun stuff, jobs.
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A flurry of diplomacy, and a possible TikTok deal?
Donald Trump yet again suspended the ban on TikTok, and there is a China-U.S. deal for TikTok afoot, but the only thing it seems everyone agrees on is that there is a “framework” for it:
“A framework deal” was reached between China and the U.S. for the ownership of TikTok, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said after trade talks last weekend in Madrid, in Spain. Bessent also “expressed confidence” that a trade deal with China is near.
At a press conference in Madrid, Wáng Jìngtāo 王京涛, Deputy Director of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, said the deal included “licensing the algorithm and other intellectual property rights, and that TikTok owner ByteDance would “entrust the operation of TikTok’s U.S. user data and content security.”
Bloomberg reported that “TikTok’s U.S. operations would be acquired by a consortium that includes Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz and private equity firm Silver Lake Management,” citing “people familiar with the matter.”
In his Interconnected newsletter, investor Kevin Xu wrote that the deal could represent “the contours of a roadmap and path, however murky and fickle, for other Chinese technologies to flow to the U.S. without too much political headache.”
Beijing has commitment issues
The Chinese language report in the Communist Party newspaper, the People’s Daily, is perhaps the least committal of the reports: “The two sides…reached a basic framework consensus on properly resolving TikTok-related issues through cooperation, reducing investment barriers, and encouraging relevant economic and trade cooperation. The two sides will consult on the relevant outcome documents and carry out their respective domestic approval procedures.”
And therein lies the rub: The official Chinese language is extremely vague. No doubt the negotiating Chinese officials know Trump could change his mind at any time for any reason, and they are sick of being jerked around.
Soy bean snub and other irritants
There are also many other issues the U.S. and China are far away from working out that could affect a TikTok deal:
“China’s snub of U.S. soybeans is a crisis for American farmers,” according to the New York Times.
“China’s internet regulator has banned the country’s biggest technology companies from buying Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips, as Beijing steps up efforts to boost its domestic industry and compete with the U.S.” said the Financial Times. This comes after the U.S. relaxed restrictions on Nvidia chip sales to China.
“Beijing still isn’t giving foreign companies access to critically needed rare earths,” according to the European Chamber of Commerce in China, cited by CNBC.
Astronomical reciprocal tariffs of 145% are set to take effect in November. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that he expects further talks to happen before then.
That’s far from a complete list of irritants, but even that is a lot of stuff to work out.
A spate of U.S.-China talks
However, judging by the recent flurry of diplomacy, some kind of deal or meeting or agreement looks to be in the works, even if it does not happen this week:
U.S. “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth held a video call with Chinese Defense Minister Admiral Dǒng Jūn 董军, their first direct talks since Hegseth took office.
“Hours later,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wáng Yì 王毅 and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, had a phone call.
The Chinese embassy in the U.S. has confirmed “that a bipartisan group of lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives will visit the country later this month for the first time in over six years,” led by Representative Adam Smith, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee.
Other news that has caught my eye
AI and returnee tech talents
“Why one of the world’s most brilliant AI scientists left the U.S. for China” is the subtitle of an excellent profile of Song-Chun Zhu (朱松纯 Zhū Sōngchún) by Chang Che.
Alex Kot, whom the South China Morning Post called “Singapore’s leading AI scientist… who has been with Nanyang Technological University in Singapore for more than 30 years” has moved to Shenzhen MSU-BIT University, a Chinese-Russian cooperative university.
Sū Fēi 苏菲, a veteran Intel chip architect has left the U.S. to take up a professorship at his alma mater, the engineering powerhouse of Tsinghua University in Beijing.
The Locknet, exported
“A trove of internal documents leaked from a little-known Chinese company has pulled back the curtain on how digital censorship tools are being marketed and exported globally,” reported WIRED.
For a comprehensive examination of China’s Great FireWall and its entire Internet censorship apparatus, see The Locknet: How China controls its internet and why it matters, by Jessica Batke and Laura Edelson on ChinaFile.
Arctic shipping route
A seasonal shipping line named Arctic Express and run by Haijie Shipping Company has begun transporting freight from China north across the Arctic to European ports, cutting travel time and avoiding the risks of Houthi attacks near the Suez Canal.
How rock-and-Roll Saved a Remote Chinese School
In a mountainside village in Guizhou province, a teacher’s music lessons turned ‘left-behind’ children into viral stars, reviving a dying school and offering students a path out of poverty
‘China ditching the dollar’
“Officials believe that the yuan has finally come of age,” says the Economist, as “Donald Trump’s erratic trade policy, gaping fiscal deficits and threats to the independence of America’s Federal Reserve risk badly hurting the dollar,” and “foreign investors are piling in” to the yuan, as are “many governments looking for dollar alternatives.”
Interesting links, fun stuff, jobs
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