Trump Bans Transactions With Parent Companies of TikTok, WeChat

The U.S. announced a ban on transactions with the parent companies of TikTok and WeChat, two Chinese-owned apps that President Donald Trump said threaten U.S. national security. In executive orders issued Aug. 6, the U.S. said it will prohibit any transaction with TikTok owner ByteDance and WeChat owner Tencent Holdings, beginning in 45 days.

The orders do not define “transaction” and do not specify enforcement, but both executive orders say exemptions may be available for companies in the form of licenses. The White House, the Commerce Department and the Department of the Treasury did not comment.

The White House said the spread of applications developed by Chinese companies threatens the U.S. economy and its foreign policy. Data collection by the apps allows China “access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information,” which could allow the government to track locations of federal employees, “build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage,” the White House said.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson criticized the ban. The U.S. “frequently uses national power to unreasonably suppress non-U.S. companies,” the spokesperson said during an Aug. 7 news conference, according to an unofficial translation. The spokesperson said China “will firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of its own enterprises.”

In a statement, TikTok said it was “shocked” by the EO, which it said was issued “without any due process.” The company said it has tried to negotiate with the U.S. government for about a year to address U.S. concerns. “What we encountered instead was that the Administration paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses,” it said.

TikTok also said it has “never” shared user data with the Chinese government. “We will pursue all remedies available to us in order to ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and our users are treated fairly -- not by the Administration, then by the US courts,” the company said.

A Tencent spokesperson said the company is “reviewing the executive order to get a full understanding.”