Trump Bans 7 Chinese Apps

President Donald Trump signed on Tuesday, a new executive order prohibiting transactions with the companies behind eight Chinese apps. The apps list includes: Alipay, CamScanner, QQ Wallet, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate, WeChat Pay and WPS Office.

Meanwhile, the US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross confirmed that the ministry, will begin implementing the E.O.’s directives, including identifying prohibited transactions.

That move came follow two earlier ones from August that already tried to ban transactions with ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, and WeChat. However, a judge blocked the WeChat ban in September and again in October, while a judge granted a preliminary injunction stopping the TikTok ban in December.

The Trump order's reported that the continuing activity of the PRC and the CCP to steal or otherwise obtain United States persons' data makes clear that there is an intent to use bulk data collection to advance China's economic and national security agenda.

In addition, data collection providing the Government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with access to Americans' personal and proprietary information. Which would permit China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, and build dossiers of personal information.

Later, India banned on November2020, more than 175 apps, as well as 43 apps prejudicial to India’s sovereignty and integrity, according to the government. Meanwhile, India cited cybersecurity concerns to block these apps. The India’s IT Ministry reported that action was taken based on the comprehensive reports received from Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center.

Moreover, the apps that have been banned include Tencent-backed popular short video service Snack Video, which had surged to the top of the chart in recent months, as well as e-commerce AliExpress, delivery app Lalamove and shopping app Taobao Live.