TikTokBan Beijing/Sputnik: Beijing opposes the US measures against the Chinese owners of the TikTok and WeChat apps and demands that Washington stops politicizing economic issues, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Friday.
Late on Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed executive orders giving companies operating within the US legal system 45 days to stop all transactions with China's ByteDance and Tencent companies, which own TikTok and WeChat, respectively.
"By conducting their economic activities on the US territory, the respective companies are following the market principles and the international rules.
They are following US laws and regulations. Washington, however, is constantly abusing its state power to pressure non-US companies without any reason, using national security as an excuse.
This is clearly a hegemonic behavior. China is decisively against that," Wang said during a press briefing.
He has noted that the United States is ready to sacrifice the interests of its users and companies by putting its interests above the international norms and market principles.
"We are urging Washington to heed the voice of reason, fix its mistakes, stop politicizing economic issues, and pressuring certain companies," Wang added.
WeChat is a Chinese chat application developed by Tencent that allows its users to stay in touch via video and voice calls, videos, photographs, stickers and texts. It also supports multiple so-called mini-programs, essentially apps within the app, which allow it to be used for various other purposes beyond messaging.
TikTok is an app for creating and watching short videos, developed by ByteDance. It has won the leading position within the segment in China and is currently rising in popularity across the globe.
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