FirstFT: US and China reach ‘framework’ for TikTok deal

Good morning and welcome back to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter:

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Donald Trump has signalled that Washington and Beijing have struck a deal on the future of the US operations of Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok. Here’s what to know.

The latest: The US president wrote on his Truth Social network shortly before two days of US-China trade negotiations wrapped up in Madrid yesterday that the latest round of talks had “gone very well”. In an apparent reference to TikTok, he wrote: “A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save. They will be very happy.” Trump added that he would speak to President Xi Jinping later this week.

‘Framework’ for deal: Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, who was leading the US delegation in the Spanish capital, said the US and China had reached a “framework” deal on TikTok to be approved by Trump and Xi on Friday. The Trump administration has repeatedly extended a congressionally mandated deadline for TikTok owner ByteDance to divest its American operations of the video-sharing app or face a nationwide ban in the US. There is another deadline tomorrow.

Read more about the potential resolution of the TikTok situation.

• More tech news: A Chinese regulator found that chipmaker Nvidia violated the country’s antitrust law when it acquired Mellanox Technologies, an Israeli-US supplier of networking products.

• Export controls: Chinese export restrictions on germanium, a metal crucial for the defence industry, have created a “desperate” supply crunch, traders say.

• Chinese economy: China’s economy has shown signs of a general slowdown, with retail sales and industrial output growing at the most subdued rate this year.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: Hong Kong publishes August employment figures.

• Trump’s UK state visit: The US president arrives in London for a three-day state visit. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is hoping to use Trump’s visit to showcase Britain as an inward investment hotspot.

• India: FT Live’s two-day Energy Transition Summit India begins in New Delhi.

Five more top stories

1. Trump has called for US companies to stop reporting quarterly results, adding that a shift to publishing figures twice a year will save them cash and allow executives to focus on their businesses. The US president issued his call in a social media post yesterday, contrasting standard practice in the US with what he depicted as China’s more long-term approach.

• More US news: US prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, sued the justice department and alleged she was fired because of “perceived political affiliation”.

2. MPs have called on the UK government to provide an urgent explanation after UK prosecutors suddenly dropped all charges against two men accused of spying on a parliamentary group on behalf of China. The pair had been due to go on trial in October, charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act. Here’s how MPs reacted to the decision.

3. A dispute over the protected status of basmati rice is adding to tensions between India and Pakistan, threatening to complicate New Delhi’s push for a trade deal with the EU. The South Asian rivals each claim exclusive use of the term, bidding to restrict the “basmati” label to rice grown in a designated area and thus allowing producers there to charge a premium.

4. Alphabet’s market capitalisation surged above $3tn for the first time yesterday as the search giant’s shares have surged in recent weeks in the wake of a report showing the group continues to grow rapidly. Shares in Google’s parent company have climbed more than 30 per cent to a record high of $252 since late July.

• Pop Mart shares: The Chinese toy company’s stock has fallen amid concerns that the success of Labubu, its toothy-grinned furry elf doll, was running out of steam.

5. Qatar’s emir urged a summit of Arab and Muslim leaders to take “concrete steps” against Israel in response to last week’s Israeli missile strikes targeting Hamas political leaders in Doha. In a fiery speech, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani described the attack as “blatant, treacherous and cowardly”, and accused Israel of waging a “genocidal war” against the Palestinians.

The Big Read

This month’s demonstrations in Nepal have been called the “Gen Z” revolution after young people took to the streets against what they saw as an ageing and crooked political elite. The protests in the south Asian country are part of a regional trend of insurrections by the younger generation who have grown frustrated with the spoils of growth reverting back to entrenched political classes and not improving their own lives.

We’re also reading . . . 

Chart of the day

Chinese President Xi Jinping in July gave his clearest warning yet against the bruising price war in China’s car industry when he pointed to reckless investment plans and questioned whether every province needed electric vehicle factories. But there are few signs of a deeper U-turn under way as carmakers fear falling behind on scale and technology and are willing to sacrifice short-term profitability.

Take a break from the news . . . 

Imagine spending the last seven weeks of this year working for free. This is in effect what women across the world do when compared with men because of the endurance of gender pay gaps, writes Pilita Clark.