WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - US President Donald Trump on Thursday (Aug 6) unveiled sweeping bans on US transactions with China’s ByteDance, owner of video-sharing app TikTok, and Tencent, operator of messenger app WeChat, in a major escalation of tensions with Beijing.
The orders come as the Trump administration said this week that it was stepping up efforts to purge “untrusted” Chinese apps from US digital networks and called the Chinese-owned short-video app TikTok and messenger app WeChat “significant threats”.
TikTok, the hugely popular video-sharing app, has come under fire from US lawmakers and the administration over national security concerning data collection, amid intensified tension between Washington and Beijing.
The TikTok app may be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party, and the US “must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security”, Mr Trump said in one order.
In the other, Mr Trump said WeChat “automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users. This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information”.
The order would effectively ban WeChat in the US in 45 days by barring “to the extent permitted under applicable law, any transaction that is related to WeChat by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with Tencent Holdings Ltd” .
Mr Trump issued these orders under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law that grants the administration sweeping power to bar US firms or citizens from trading or conducting financial transactions with sanctioned parties.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expanded efforts on a program dubbed “Clean Network” to prevent various Chinese apps as well as Chinese telecoms firms from accessing sensitive information on US citizens and businesses.
James Lewis, a technology expert with Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the orders appeared coordinated with Pompeo’s announcement.
“This is the rupture in the digital world between the U.S. and China,” he said. “Absolutely, China will retaliate.”
“On TikTok, Trump is clearly putting pressure on Bytedance to close the deal,” Lewis said.
Mr Trump said this week he would support the sale of TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft Corp if the US government got a “substantial portion” of the sales price but warned he will ban the service in the US on Sept 15.
TikTok has 100 million users in the United States. While WeChat is not popular in the country, the app, which has over 1 billion users, is ubiquitous in China. It is also widely used by expat Chinese as a main platform for communications with family and friends as well as a medium for various other services such as games and e-commerce.
WeChat and TikTok were among 59 mostly Chinese apps outlawed in India in June for threatening the country’s “sovereignty and integrity.”
Operator Tencent is China’s second most-valuable company after Alibaba at US$686 billion. It is also China’s biggest video game company and earlier this summer opened California-based studio.
Tencent's shares fell nearly 10 per cent in Hong Kong after Trump’s order. The yuan, which is sensitive to Sino-U.S. relations, lost 0.4 per cent.
Tencent and ByteDance declined to comment.
The latest move comes soon after the US ordered China to vacate its consulate in Houston, Texas, followed by China’s order requiring the US to vacate its consulate in the south-western city of Chengdu.
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will identify transactions covered by the prohibition after the order takes effect in mid-September.
The order leaves key unanswered questions about the restrictions.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMifGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnN0cmFpdHN0aW1lcy5jb20vd29ybGQvdW5pdGVkLXN0YXRlcy90cnVtcC1pc3N1ZXMtb3JkZXItdG8tYmFuLXRyYW5zYWN0aW9ucy13aXRoLXRpa3Rva3MtY2hpbmVzZS1vd25lci1ieXRlZGFuY2XSAQA?oc=5
2020-08-07 04:29:01Z
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