The U.S. government is considering imposing restrictions on the digital payment platforms of China’s Ant Group and Tencent Holdings Ltd. over concerns that they threaten U.S. home security.
The move would mark a new deterioration in the relationship between the world’s two largest economies, the report said. It would also indicate that President Trump’s administration is currently trying to prevent Chinese companies from embedding themselves into the U.S. financial system before they become a major threat.
Ant Group is the parent company of China’s largest mobile payment platform, Alipay.
The primary users of Ant Group’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat payment platforms are Chinese citizens with RMB accounts. Most of their interactions with the U.S. take place with U.S. merchants who accept payments from Chinese tourists and businesses.
Discussions among senior U.S. officials about how and whether to restrict Ant Group’s and Tencent’s payment systems have picked up pace in recent weeks, Bloomberg said, citing people with knowledge of the discussions, though a final decision is not imminent.
An Ant Group spokesman said the company is “not aware of any such discussions within the government.
Tencent and the White House did not immediately respond to Bloomberg’s requests for comment.
The Trump administration is taking action against WeChat, the overseas version of Tencent’s WeChat app. The U.S. Justice Department on Oct. 2 said it was appealing a judge’s decision to block the government from blocking Apple and Google from allowing WeChat to be downloaded from U.S. app stores.
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