The US government announced that Chinese mobile apps WeChat and TikTok will be removed from the US app store on Sunday. After the ban takes effect, WeChat users in the United States will not be able to use WeChat transfer funds and payment functions.
The US Department of Commerce announced on Friday (18th) that the ban on WeChat and TikTok will take effect on Sunday, September 20. These two mobile apps have approximately 100 million users in the United States.
The U.S. has also imposed other restrictions, including U.S. telecom operators, hosting providers, and Internet access service providers that are not allowed to cooperate with WeChat.
These restrictions have set different effective dates for WeChat and TikTok. The rules for WeChat will take effect from September 20, while TikTok's rules will take effect on November 20.
The ban means that WeChat users in the United States may not be able to use WeChat from midnight next Monday.
US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in an interview with Fox Television that the initial impact of the ban on WeChat will be greater than TikTok.
Earlier, some Chinese Americans made a petition on the White House petition website that "WeChat should not be banned," but another group of Chinese who supported the ban on WeChat and TikTok petitioned on the website. Both parties collected tens of thousands of signatures. The petition supporting the WeChat ban stated that WeChat is a tool used to "penetrate", "brainwash", and "threat" Chinese Americans, and WeChat payment also harms the interests of the US banking industry.
The United States believes that the above-mentioned two Chinese mobile phone applications threaten the national security of the United States, or hand over user data to the Chinese government to cooperate with Beijing to monitor and suppress those who oppose the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese government and two Chinese companies deny the allegation.
The US Department of Commerce ordered the delisting of TikTok from the application platform, but other restrictions have delayed its effective time. The outside world is still waiting to see whether the US company Oracle and TikTok's cooperation plan can make it escape the ban in the United States fate.
Trump announced in early August that if TikTok is not sold before September 20, it will be shut down. On Monday, Oracle and TikTok's parent company ByteDance submitted a proposal to the US government to open up a new possibility of "trusted technology partners" in addition to the sale and closure, so that TikTok will not be sold entirely.
But on Wednesday, Trump spoke out on the incident and opposed Bytedance's retention of a majority stake in TikTok.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said that the situation may still change, and the US government is still evaluating the details of the transaction and whether it has reached the national security threshold. He said that if it is still mainly operated by Chinese companies, it will not achieve President Trump's goals.
TikTok and Oracle’s cooperation plan is intended to avoid the US government ban, but also to ensure that the Chinese government does not oppose the transaction. But in the era of China-US decoupling, this middle route is full of thorns.