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Original caption: Dig a hole for Biden? Trump, who is about to resign, ordered a ban on 8 Chinese apps, including QQ Alipay
It’s no wonder that January 20, 2021, is the day that US President Trump resigns, with only a dozen days left.
However, before resigning, Trump did not stop.
Just a few hours ago, on January 5, US Eastern time, US President Trump issued an order prohibiting any US individual and entity from transacting with 8 companies and Chinese apps controlled by them.
The 8 applications are:
Alipay, Scan Almighty King, QQ Wallet, Eggplant Express, Tencent QQ, VMate (short video service incubated by Alibaba UC in India), WeChat Pay, and WPS Office.
Trump’s Old Tricks: National Security
Why did Trump do this?
The routine remains the same: for national security.
It is understood that Trump stated in the executive order that based on Executive Order No. 13873 (Securing the Supply Chain of Information and Communication Technology and Services, to ensure the security of the supply chain of information technology and services and Communications) of May 15, 2019, further action should be taken to address national emergencies.
What kind of emergency?
Trump said: Specifically, given their speed and popularity in the United States, certain internet-connected desktop or mobile applications and other software developed or controlled by China continue to threaten US national security, foreign policy and security. Economics: Therefore, steps must be taken to deal with these threats from Chinese software applications.
Trump said that by accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets and computers, China’s Internet software applications can access and capture a large amount of user information, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information, which will allow to China track the location of federal employees and contractors in the United States and the establishment of personal information files.
In fact, based on these considerations, Trump claimed that staff in many departments and agencies of the United States government have been banned from using Internet software from China.
However, Trump felt it was not enough.
In the decree, Trump also spoke about the practices of the Indian government. Previously, the Indian government had banned more than 200 Chinese Internet software across the country. India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology stated in a statement that these App “secretly stole and transmits user data to a server outside India in an unauthorized manner”.
Judging from the meaning of this passage, Trump is keen to copy the work of the Indian government.
As a result, Trump declared that the United States must take aggressive action against those who develop or control China’s interconnected software applications to protect American national security. Specifically, you need to cut any occurrence of American individuals and entities from the following Chinese apps. transaction:
Alipay, Scan Almighty King, QQ Wallet, Eggplant Express, Tencent QQ, VMate (a short video app incubated by Alibaba UC in India), WeChat Pay, and WPS Office.
You can see that Trump wants to block these apps in the United States.
It is worth mentioning that among these 8 apps, VMate is a short video app incubated by Alibaba UC in India. The main focus is Hindi; This app has been blocked by the Indian government and has been blocked by the Alibaba UC team. give up.
The US government went to great lengths to block an app that has no sense of existence, rendering people really powerless to complain.
Trump’s final fight before resigning
For any administrative order to go into effect, it needs a process, and naturally it also takes time, not to mention the executive order of the President of the United States, Trump.
In the executive order, Trump left the United States Department of Commerce to implement it in 45 days.
Trump also directed that the US Department of Commerce continue to evaluate China’s internet applications to see if they pose unacceptable threats to US national security, foreign policy and economy, and require it to take the appropriate measures to comply with Executive Order 13873.
In a word: things are not over yet.
Regarding Trump’s order, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross also stated:
In accordance with the authority assigned by the President to the Ministry of Commerce, I have instructed my department to begin implementing the instructions of the executive order, including the determination of prohibited transactions related to certain China Internet software applications.
Wilbur Ross also specifically voiced his support for Trump and later used a lot of official rhetoric to express the legality of his actions in the United States.
But the problem is that Trump will leave office as president of the United States in less than 20 days, and the action period of the United States Department of Commerce is 45 days. The Ministry plans to take action before Trump officially leaves office on January 20, 2021.
It can be said that he has ulterior motives.
However, in the eyes of the outside world, Trump’s move is not essentially a purported national security consideration, but it is likely to be a large hole that he dug for US President-elect Biden before leaving office.
For example, Li Mingtao, dean of the Research Institute of China International Electronic Commerce Center, said in an interview that this is Trump’s decision to create more obstacles for the next government before he leaves office.
In fact, as early as August 2020, US President Trump issued an executive order instructing the US Department of Commerce to prohibit US individuals and entities from transacting with WeChat and TikTok from China.
At the time, regarding Trump’s attempt to block WeChat, Tencent expressed reassurance. On the contrary, many American companies operating in China panicked. For example, well-known companies such as Apple, Wal-Mart and Disney, proposed to the United States government to block WeChat. The influence of one’s own development.
But in the end, the implementation of this executive order was ultimately blocked by two US court judges.
Today, Trump’s latest executive order may also face challenges from the US courts, but for Biden, how to deal with Trump’s executive order after taking office will be a very difficult subject. .
What is the impact of this problem?
It can be said that Trump has gone to extremes along the way to target China.
It is worth mentioning that when the Trump administration tried to block TikTok and WeChat last year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of our country responded:
The United States has frequently used national power under the guise of national security to unreasonably crack down on Chinese companies, which is gross intimidation. China is firmly opposed.
The nature of this administrative order is similar.
