San Francisco (AFP)
Two weeks before his planned departure from the White House, Donald Trump is continuing his crusade against Chinese mobile applications, which he considers to be threats to "national security", with no real prospect of succeeding in banning them from the United States.
The outgoing US president on Tuesday signed an executive order to ban within 45 days all transactions with eight Chinese payment services and applications, including Alipay (Ant Group) and WeChat Pay (Tencent).
The head of state who tried all summer, in vain, to ban the very popular social network TikTok (which belongs to the Chinese group Bytedance), accuses this software of collecting confidential data and of serving Beijing to make 'spying.
Will be prohibited, after the deadline, "all transactions by any person (...) under the jurisdiction of the United States, with persons who produce or control the following Chinese connected applications (...): Alipay, CamScanner, QQ Wallet, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate, WeChat Pay, and WPS Office, ”the executive order reads.
The decision is due to take effect after the Republican billionaire was replaced by President-elect Joe Biden on January 20.
A senior government official clarified that its entry into force had not been discussed with "the potential future government of Joe Biden".
"These applications were chosen because of the risks," detailed the spokesperson during a press conference call.
"They are used by an extremely high number of users and are found on tens of millions of devices, so there is a massive harvest of information and data going to the Chinese government and into algorithms."
The United States is engaged in an intense trade war with China.
"We are trying to warn the world and take action to prevent China from collecting tons of data - photos, texts, phone calls to family - and using it in its massive tools of global oppression." , insisted the senior official, citing the Uyghurs and the inhabitants of Hong Kong among the oppressed populations.
- "Arbitrary" -
Donald Trump signed similar decrees this summer against TikTok and WeChat (which is owned by Tencent), but legal remedies have prevented them from coming into effect and government appeals proceedings have not been successful at this point.
The president's camp is basing its attacks on Chinese law, which requires companies in the country to share their data if Beijing asks them to.
"The Chinese government requires all companies, large and small, to support the objectives of the Chinese Communist Party," Presidential National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien said in a statement.
TikTok has repeatedly said that the information collected, stored on servers in Singapore and the United States, was in no way shared with the Chinese administration.
The disappearance of the app on American soil, wanted by Mr. Trump, was also rejected by Judge Carl Nichols in Pennsylvania.
According to him, lawyers for TikTok have shown that the Commerce Ministry overstepped its authority and "acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner by not considering the obvious alternatives" to the ban.
According to the decree, it is "clear" that China is seeking to achieve its economic and national security goals through data theft.
President asks Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to determine if other apps pose a danger as well, and calls on minister, attorney general and chief intelligence officer to make recommendations to prevent US data transfers to adversaries foreigners.
The text does not specify what types of transactions could be prohibited, nor whether users will be able to continue to use the applications concerned in the event of a hypothetical entry into force.
Tencent and Ant Group did not immediately react to AFP's requests.
© 2021 AFP