China accuses US of 'political manipulation' after Trump's order against TikTok, WeChat

Issuing the first response over US President Donald Trump signing an executive order banning American transactions with WeChat and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance in 45 days, Beijing on August 7 accused Washington of “political manipulation”. The orders came after Trump administration said earlier this week that it is gearing up to purge the “untrusted” Chinese apps from America’s digital networks and called Chinese-owned video-sharing social networking service and messenger app as “significant threats”. 

Chinese foreign ministry said that it firmly rejects the Trump’s executive orders and accused the latter of “political manipulation”. According to reports, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a media briefing that Beijing will protect the nation’s legitimate rights and interests of Chinese businesses.

But, Trump, on the other hand, has said in one order that TikTok can be used for disinformation campaigns that favour the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) adding that the US “must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security”. 

Read - Trump Signs Executive Order Banning Transaction With TikTok, WeChat In 45 Days

In a separate order, US President said that WeChat "automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users. This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information". This executive order signed by Trump would ban the apps in the US after 45 days "to the extent permitted under applicable law, any transaction that is related to WeChat by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with Tencent Holdings Ltd".

Read - TikTok's Sale To US-based Company May Alleviate Security Concerns: Tech Expert

Microsoft in talks with ByteDance

Trump's executive order came when American tech giant Microsoft is already in discussion with China's ByteDance to reach an agreement over the sales of TikTok's US operations. US Senate on August 6 had unanimously passed a bill banning the use of Chinese-owned video application TikTok by federal employees on government devices. Meanwhile, TikTok has invested a huge amount in Ireland to open a new European data collection centre amid growing scrutiny over its practices across the world.

In June, India had also banned the Chinese-owned video-sharing app citing national security and privacy as reasons following a violent military clash at the Himalayan border with the People's Liberation Army (PLA). India was reportedly TikTok's largest market.

Read - US Senate Unanimously Passes Bill Banning TikTok On Government Devices

Read - Chinese-owned TikTok Invests €420 Million For New European Data Centre In Ireland

(With inputs from agency)