China is strongly opposed to the actions of the US authorities regarding the Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat. This was announced on Friday, August 7, by the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC, Wang Wenbin.
“Washington, using national security as an excuse, constantly abuses state power to put pressure on non-American companies without any reason, this is clearly hegemonic behavior, China is strongly opposed to this,” Xinhua quoted him as saying.
Wenbin also stressed that Beijing will protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese business, Reuters reports.
On the eve of US President Donald Trump signed decrees “On Combating the Threat” allegedly emanating from the Chinese applications WeChat and TikTok. According to the documents, any transactions in the American jurisdiction with the Chinese companies ByteDance and Tencent, the owners of the applications, must be terminated within 45 days.
In decrees, TikTok and WeChat are identified as a threat to US national security, economy and politics.
The US administration has accused the apps of collecting user data, including location and search history.
On August 3, the President of the United States announced that Microsoft or another American company must buy TikTok by September 15, otherwise the application will be banned in the country.
TikTok is a service for creating and watching short videos. WeChat is a program that combines instant messenger, social network and electronic payment system.