Trumps dream TikTok dealcould seta blueprint for doing business with China

With President Donald Trump back in office, his idea for a TikTok joint venture could set a precedent for how he expects all Chinese companies to operate in the US.On Sunday evening, he posted on Truth Social: “I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture.By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to [stay] up.”The next day, Trump signed an executive order that gave TikTok an additional 75 days to find a buyer before facing a ban.While it’s unclear what the US owning 50% of TikTok means or how it might work, sources told NYNext that it is more likely Trump will push for a joint venture that would combine TikTok and an American company, sharing profit and risk.

It could be a blueprint for how all companies with Chinese ownership operate in the States, sources add.This JV may be much like the deal Trump put together, and later scrapped, in his first term between TikTok and a consortium of American companies.In 2020, Microsoft and Walmart explored a potential deal with the app that could have given them access to the TikTok audience and their data.Many American companies that are granted the right to do business in China — including McDonald’s, General Motors and Boeing — function as joint ventures, though China has eased some of those rules in recent years.

Tesla, for instance, is allowed to operate independently as a wholly foreign-owned enterprise.“If an industry is required to be in a JV in China, [a Chinese company in that industry] needs to be a JV here,” the source said.“Trump loves the reciprocal trade framework … and he loves this [idea].”  So far, Trump’s reciprocal trade policy has largely focused on levying tariffs.But sources told NYNext that advisers have floated the idea of President Trump issuing an executive order that would require at least some of the roughly 5,000 Chinese companies operating in the US — like Temu, Shein and Alibaba — to team up with an Amer...