President Trump bans Chinese software apps on claims of espionage

On Tuesday, President Trump has signed an executive order that bans businesses with leading Chinese technology companies. The U.S President is also trying to forbid any transactions with eight companies, such as Alipay, WeChat, and QQ among others.

 

These bans are put in place following President Trump’s claims that Chinese apps are able to spy and access personal data and information on American citizens, including federal employees. This is the latest order by the administration that seeks to bring down the rise of Chinese technology companies.

 

In the order, the President declared that these software are dangerous and threaten national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. It also stated that this new order would pave the way for creating a program that can control the export of exploitable United States user data to foreign adversaries.

 

However, the order will go into effect after Trump left office, and thus, its actual implementation would then need the approval of the Biden administration, which is not guaranteed. If President-elect Biden decided to move ahead with the order, it would still have a limited impact on U.S. consumers, as most users of the apps are Chinese citizens.

 

Yet, the apps are more and more essential to U.S. businesses running in China, as they have virtual storefronts connected to Alipay and WeChat. Moreover, the order doesn’t include TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company, despite Trump’s efforts to ban the app over the last few months.

 

This represents yet another attempt to eliminate foreign companies and especially Chinese companies. In response to this, China has denied all claims that their firms share their data with the Chinese government and have imposed restrictions on exports of military technology.

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