Pascal Arogorn Ibe
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered a ban on Alipay , WeChat Pay and other apps linked to Chinese companies, saying they could route user information to the government in Beijing .
The executive order is to take effect in 45 days, just weeks after Trump is replaced in the White House by President – elect Joe Biden .
A senior administration official said the order and its implementation has not been discussed with the “ potential incoming Biden administration. ”
The move by Trump comes after previous executive orders aimed at banning TikTok , which is owned by China -based ByteDance, were derailed by court rulings indicating Trump overstepped his legal authority .
The apps targeted by the new ban were chosen because of the extremely high number of downloads , which meant tens of millions of users could be at risk of having their data harnessed , according to the administration official .
“ We are trying to articulate to the world and take steps to stop the encroachment of China’ s big data strategy — photos , text messages, phone calls to parents — from being fed into this mass tool for global oppression, ” the official said .
Trump’ s order calls for the secretary of commerce to review and assess what further apps should be included in the ban.
It specifically named Alipay , CamScanner, QQ Wallet, SHAREit , Tencent QQ , VMate , WeChat Pay and WPS Office .
( AFP)
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