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As Beijing Pushes To Discuss TikTok, WeChat Bans In Trade Talks, White House Reportedly Explores Removing TikTok From App Stores

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Updated Aug 12, 2020, 07:55am EDT

TOPLINE

Beijing is set to bring up Washington’s recent crackdown against TikTok and WeChat during upcoming trade talks between the U.S. and China, even as the Trump White House is reportedly working on an order that would force phone makers to remove TikTok from app stores and make advertising on the platform illegal.

KEY FACTS

As the two countries prepare to hold a virtual meeting on trade issues, the date for which is yet to be finalized, Chinese negotiators are pushing to widen the agenda to include the apps ban issue, Bloomberg reported.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian has said that his country’s position on the issue remains consistent, noting TikTok “is just a platform for providing entertainment, leisure, the show of talents and sharing for American people and people around the world.

It has nothing to do with national security,” the report added.Trump signed an order last week prohibiting transactions with TikTok if its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance fails to reach a deal to divest its U.S. operations in 45 days.

While the order did not specify the scope of the ban, a White House document accessed by Reuters reportedly shows that the U.S. government is considering disrupting key aspects of TikTok’s operations and finance.

The document reportedly states that prohibited transactions may include TikTok’s availability on U.S. app stores run by Apple and Google, along with banning companies from buying ads on TikTok.

Restrictions on TikTok’s availability on app stores would effectively mean that users of iPhones and Android phones in the U.S. would not be able to download or update the app, effectively stalling its growth.

Tangent

In June, India banned TikTok and a string of other Chinese apps, after tensions between the two neighbors flared up after soldiers from both India and China clashed in a disputed region of the Himalayas. Following the ban, the apps were removed from Google and Apple’s Indian app stores. TikTok went a step further and blocked the functioning of the app on devices that had already downloaded it, in an effort to comply with the government’s order.

Key BackGround

Amidst escalating trade and geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China, President Donald Trump has threatened to ban TikTok unless it finds a buyer for its U.S. operations by September 15. Microsoft has openly expressed interest in acquiring TikTok’s operations in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, noting that it is engaged in talks to secure the deal. The strongest Chinese pushback against the deal has primarily come from Chinese state-controlled media, with China Daily writing that “China will by no means accept the ‘theft’ of a Chinese technology company, and it has plenty of ways to respond if the administration carries out its planned smash and grab.”

Further Reading

Exclusive: U.S. ban on TikTok could cut it off from app stores, advertisers - White House document (Reuters)

China to Bring Up WeChat, TikTok in Next U.S. Trade Talks (Bloomberg)

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