TikTok restored U.S. services after Donald Trump pledged to delay enforcement of a ban. Yet it’s not clear whether the app’s Chinese parent is able, or willing, to secure a U.S. backer in time to avoid a permanent shutdown.

Most immediate is the question of whether such an extension would be legal after the ban kicked in Sunday. Trump, sworn in Monday as the 47th U.S. president, over the weekend declared he will “not let TikTok stay dark,” promising to sign an executive order granting another 90 days for TikTok to find a U.S. backer and defuse national security concerns. He proposed a joint venture under which American owners would purchase 50% of the company.

TikTok restored service after that post. Yet while Trump gained praise from users for the reprieve, he faces longtime skeptics in his own Republican Party about what they see as the app’s ongoing national security threat. Legally, he may need to demonstrate the likelihood of striking an agreement with TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd. — with few visible signs of progress.

“If full China control over TikTok is a security risk, co-control won’t be better,” said Brock Silvers, managing director at private equity firm Kaiyuan Capital, calling celebrations over the app’s reprieve premature. “It seems likely that, after the coming extension, TikTok will be under majority U.S. control — or it won’t operate in the U.S.”

How Beijing and ByteDance respond could have implications not just for the world’s most popular social video service, but also Chinese companies from Temu to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. with thriving American operations.

Beijing and ByteDance have pondered a raft of options to keep the viral social media platform afloat — for Chinese officials, that’s included a deal with a friendly buyer such as Elon Musk. But it’s unclear if President Xi Jinping’s government would even cede control of such a valuable asset in a forced sale. China has likened a forced TikTok sale to U.S. “plundering” and criticized the U.S. for politicizing business.

“Trump’s proposal is not the best solution,” said Cui Hongjian, a former Chinese diplomat who teaches at Beijing Foreign Studies University. “But it shows a willingness by the Trump administration to deal with the issue in a less political and more reasonable way.”

“China will take some time to make a judgment on Trump’s real purpose, and a possible transaction,” Cui added. “But it will keep an open mind to any constructive solution.”

Under the national security law, which was signed by then-President Joe Biden in April, Trump can grant TikTok more time to finalize a deal only by certifying to Congress that a “qualified divestiture” is in motion. He must show there’s a viable path forward, that significant progress has been made toward a deal and that legal agreements are in place to close a deal with ByteDance in that new time frame, according to the law.

Though there are some parties interested in acquiring TikTok’s U.S. business, there is no known front-runner or public evidence of “significant progress” on negotiations. ByteDance has maintained for the better part of a year that it’s unwilling to sell TikTok at all, though that calculus could change now that a ban is finally imminent.

Key Republican leaders have made clear that they still expect ByteDance to sell TikTok despite Trump’s confidence in some type of solution. There must be a “full divestiture” from the Chinese Communist Party, House Speaker Mike Johnson said on NBC Channel 2 “Meet the Press.” Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton said in a post on X there was no legal basis for any kind of extension.

Unless Trump and ByteDance can prove a deal is in the works, it’s unclear if his executive order will succeed in keeping TikTok available.