The plans to separate the U.S. operations of TikTok have been paused as China indicated its unwillingness to endorse the agreement following President Donald Trump's announcement of reciprocal tariffs. The arrangement, which had been almost finalized by Wednesday, entailed transferring TikTok's U.S. branch to a new U.S.-based company primarily owned by American investors, with ByteDance holding a minority stake of less than 20%. The deal had the approval of current and new investors, ByteDance, and the U.S. government. Neither ByteDance nor the White House responded immediately for comments. President Trump has extended the deadline by 75 days for ByteDance to sell TikTok's U.S. assets to a non-Chinese buyer. He mentioned on social media that further work is required to secure all necessary approvals for the deal, hoping to negotiate with China amicably despite their discontent over reciprocal tariffs. China faces a 54% tariff on items entering the U.S. after Trump's recent tariff increase of 34%, prompting retaliatory actions from China. Trump expressed openness to reducing tariffs on China to facilitate a deal with ByteDance for the sale of TikTok, an app utilized by 170 million Americans.