After U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday approved a deal for TikTok to continue operating in the United States, Beijing, the ultimate decision-maker on the app's fate, showed a contrasting silence. There has been no public comment on the agreement from Chinese state media, and discussion on social media has been limited. The only relevant state media-linked Weibo account, Niu Danqin, quoted a Fudan University professor as describing the agreement as a "win-win for both countries."

In signing an executive order related to the agreement, Trump said it had received "approval" from Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, ByteDance did not send a representative to attend the signing ceremony, and ByteDance and the Chinese Embassy in Singapore did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Meanwhile, some details of the agreement remain unclear. Chinese media LastPost reported on Friday that TikTok's U.S. operations will be split into two companies, citing anonymous sources.

The new joint venture will be responsible for TikTok's US business, data and algorithms as stipulated in the executive order signed by Trump on Thursday, and its Chinese parent company ByteDance will retain less than 20% of the shares. The executive order document stated that this arrangement complies with the requirements of the U.S. National Security Law for ByteDance to divest its U.S. business, otherwise TikTok will face a ban in the United States.

According to LastPost citing anonymous sources, ByteDance will also set up a new US company to be responsible for the management of e-commerce, brand advertising and international business with TikTok.

TikTok's fate in the United States has long been unresolved, with U.S. lawmakers from both parties having warned that Beijing could use the app to access sensitive data or influence public opinion. According to the latest survey released by the Pew Research Center, one in every five American adults currently gets news on TikTok regularly, while this proportion was only 3% in 2020.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that if ByteDance did not divest TikTok’s U.S. operations, the app would be banned in the United States. The initial deadline was set in January, but Trump subsequently extended it through multiple executive orders in an effort to reach an agreement.

At the beginning of this month, Trump said that after a nearly two-hour phone call with Chinese leaders, he had received Xi Jinping’s support for a TikTok plan. However, the minutes of the call released by Beijing were different. Xi Jinping said he hoped to see "productive commercial negotiations based on market rules and promote solutions that comply with Chinese laws and take into account the interests of both parties." He also asked the United States to "avoid unilateral trade restrictive measures" and provide Chinese investors with an "open, fair and non-discriminatory environment."

The TikTok negotiation comes amid larger trade negotiations between China and the United States, and some analysts say the platform may become a bargaining chip. However, some experts told CNBC that China actually has little incentive to agree to the divestment of ByteDance.

At the same time, if the proposed agreement conflicts with the TikTok sale or ban plan ruled by the Supreme Court in January this year, it may encounter legal challenges in the United States.

James Sullivan, chief Asia analyst at JPMorgan Chase, pointed out on CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" column on Friday that the TikTok agreement proposed by Trump lacked clarity on key issues such as algorithm control and still did not address the United States' national security concerns.

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