Reuters quoted a senior U.S. government report that President Donald Trump signed a new executive order on Tuesday (5) that will ban eight Chinese payment software transactions, including Ant Group’s Alipay, raising tensions between the United States and Beijing before President-elect Joe Biden takes office this month.
The White House said the banned list includes Alipay, CamScanner, qq Wallet, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate, WeChat Pay and WPS Office.
Top government officials said the move is aimed at curbing the threat to the U.S. public from Chinese software that has a large user base from which Beijing could obtain sensitive data.
An official noted that the Commerce Department has 45 days to act on the executive order, but it plans to do so by Jan. 20.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said through a statement that he supports Trump’s commitment to protecting Americans’ privacy from the threat posed by China’s Communist Party.
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