BEIJING — China’s Ministry of Commerce said Thursday that a U.S. move to revoke the Trump administration’s executive orders to ban apps like TikTok and WeChat was a “positive step” amid strained relations between the two countries. “We hope that the U.S. will treat Chinese companies fairly and avoid politicizing economic and trade issues,” ministry spokesperson Gao Feng said at a regular news briefing Thursday. Gao said
the U.S. move to revoke previous government actions against apps such as TikTok and WeChat was a “positive step in the right direction. The White House on Wednesday revoked some blanket-style orders made under former President Donald Trump against Chinese apps, including the messaging app WeChat, the short video app TikTok and the Alipay payments app. A new executive order from President Joe Biden said the U.S. would conduct an “evidence-based” analysis of transactions involving apps created, supplied, or controlled by China.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated that China would continue to defend its interests at a daily news briefing. It urged the U.S. “to stop generalizing the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress Chinese technology enterprises. Courts blocked the Trump administration’s efforts last year to ban TikTok and WeChat. However, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is still conducting a national security review of TikTok.
The Biden administration’s stance reflects concern that popular apps tied to China could expose users’ data if the ruling Communist Party pressures companies to share data. The administration said in February that it was replacing Trump’s approach with a more targeted strategy. It has noWhethernd other apps pose a danger to Americans. A senior has not yet been weighedr administration official said Wednesday that the Trump actions weren’t “always implemented most soundly.” He said the review aims to set clear criteria to evaluate specific data security and privacy risks for each app. That could lead to a range of potential future actions on an app-by-app basis.
We want to take a tailored, strict approach here,” he said. CFIUS had set deadlines for TikTok to divest its U.S. operations, but such a sale has not happened. Last week, the Biden administration expanded a list of Chinese companies on a blocklist from the Trump era purported to have links to the Chinese military and surveillance. American companies and individuals cannot invest in these companies, including telecommunications gear supplier Huawei and Chinese oil company China National Offshore Oil Corp. Chinese officials and companies have denied that their products and services pose a security threat. Relations between Beijing and Washington remain testy, with each side imposing sanctions, including tariffs on exports.
