The White House is confident the new restrictions will stand up to judicial scrutiny, since applications like Alipay would struggle to bring a First Amendment case, the senior administration official told Reuters. The restrictions, however, were blocked by courts mainly on freedom of speech grounds. Had those orders gone into effect, they would have effectively banned the Chinese apps' use in the United States and barred Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) app stores from offering them for download for new users. transactions with WeChat and the Chinese-owned video app TikTok. The directive mirrors Trump executive orders signed in August directing Commerce to block some U.S. 20 to identify prohibited transactions, another U.S. The order will likely ratchet up tensions further between Washington and Beijing, which have been locked in a bitter dispute over the origins of the coronavirus and a Chinese crackdown on Hong Kong.ĭespite the 45-day time line laid out by the order, the Commerce Department plans to act before Jan. 20 inauguration of Biden, a Democrat, who has said little about how he plans to address specific tech threats from China.īiden could, however, revoke the order on the first day of his presidency, though his transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter. The order aims to cement Trump's tough-on-China legacy before the Jan. Ant, the Biden transition team and SHAREit declined to comment.Īlibaba, Tencent, CamScanner and the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Kingsoft said in a statement published by Chinese state media that it did not expect Trump's order to substantially impact the company's business in the short term. It also harms the interests of Chinese companies and their customers, including those in the United States, who had "widely welcomed" the apps as a contactless payment option during the pandemic, the ministry added. In a statement late on Wednesday, China's Ministry of Commerce said the U.S. was abusing its national power and unreasonably suppressing foreign companies. Such data collection "would permit China to track the locations of federal employees and contractors, and build dossiers of personal information," the document adds.Ĭhina will take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights of companies in view of the Trump order, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing on Wednesday, adding that the U.S. "By accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, Chinese connected software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information," the executive order states. The order also names CamScanner, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate which is published by Alibaba Group (9988.HK) subsidiary UCWeb, and Beijing Kingsoft Office Software's (688111.SS) WPS Office. It tasks the Commerce Department with defining which transactions will be banned under the directive within 45 days and targets Tencent Holdings Ltd's (0700.HK) QQ Wallet and WeChat Pay as well. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Register
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