US President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled sweeping bans on US transactions with China’s ByteDance, owner of video-sharing app TikTok, and Tencent, operator of messenger app WeChat, in a major escalation of tensions with Beijing.
The executive orders, which go into effect in 45 days, come after the Trump administration said this week it was stepping up efforts to purge “untrusted” Chinese apps from US digital networks and called TikTok and WeChat “significant threats.” The hugely popular Tiktok has come under fire from US lawmakers and the administration over national security concerns surrounding data collection, amid growing distrust between Washington and