BEIJING (AP) — China’s Ministry of Commerce said Thursday that a U.S. move to revoke the Trump administration’s executive orders intended to ban apps like TikTok and WeChat was a “positive step,” amid strained relations between the two countries.
“We hope that the US 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 messenging app WeChat, 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 that are created, supplied or controlled by China.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated at a daily news briefing that China will continue to defend its interests. 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, but the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is still conducting a national-security review of TikTok.
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The Biden administration’s stance reflects concern that users’ personal data could be exposed by popular apps tied to China 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 not actually weighed in yet on whether TikTok and other apps pose a danger to Americans.
But a senior administration official said Wednesday that the Trump actions weren’t “always implemented in the soundest fashion.” The aim of the review is to set clear criteria to evaluate specific data security and privacy risks for each app, he said.
That could lead to a range of potential future actions on an app-by-app basis.
“We want to take a tailored, tough 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 blacklist from the Trump era purported to have links to Chinese military and surveillance. American companies and individuals cannot invest in these companies, which include 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.
© 2021 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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And for no other reason other than Trump did it—makes no difference how sensible it is. But Joe has to stroke Xi’s fur the right way doesn’t he?
MORE proof, CHINA IS running biden… AND with the way he is going, soon our nation as a whole..
If the Chicoms think it’s a step in the right direction that means it bad for the United States. They tried to pin Putin puppet on Donald Trump but more to the crux of the matter would be Beijing Biden!
5he quid-pro-joe will do anything the chicoms told him to do, well of course he would the china owns biden and his whole family, there is absolutely nothing that china-joe would notdo for his best friends over in china remember he even said that he loves china more than the USA.
FOR EVERY YEAR Trump was in office, every demented commucrat out there, Tried tying him to Russia..
SO WHERE ARE THE GOP In trying to Tie Joe to CHINA!!!?
Bunch of spineless hacks, who should be launched into the nearest black hole!
If Trump outlawed the Bubonic Plague, Biden would un-do it.
No matter how beneficial something is for U.S. citizens, if Trump did it, Biden and the rest of the disgusting, dispicable dem-rats would un-do it.
He could have came up with a cure for cancer and HIV.. THEY WOULD ELIMINATE That ‘all cause Trump was for it”.
Biden reversed some of Trumps border policies and now we have a bigger crisis at the Southern border. Biden and Harris are the worst President and vice President in the history of the US.
Good old Joe owes China, because China owns Joe, through Hunter. TikTok and WeChat, a great way of spying on Americans and do you notice the FBI and the Intelligence Agencies say nothing!
OF COURSE Not.. They are JUST as infested with CHICOMS as the white house and congress is…
Of course our “protection” says nothing – some of them may get a free trip to China to lean more sophisticated surveillance techniques to use back here on American citizens.
China Biden strikes again. He’s their creature. They likely added to Dem fraud through cyber manipulation of voting machines to get a corrupt toady into the White House. .
impeach this fool and his cabinet.
AND EVERY RINO that supported him over trump!