India, Sept. 27 -- When the US President Donald Trump posted the approval of a deal that will save China's TikTok in America, it marked the culmination of years-long-tussle between Washington and Beijing. The US wanted to wrest control away from China over one of the world's most influential apps. TikTok's American future was always precarious, as it was threatened with regular bans, lawsuits, and congressional hearings. But unlike India, which outrightly banned TikTok in 2020, the US tried to have its cake, and eat it too.

Both Trump and his successor, Democratic Joe Biden, issued an ultimatum: Be banned or become a minority shareholder. The idea was to possibly retain TikTok's growing and expansive cultural and commercial footprint, an...