Trump bans eight Chinese payment apps
Washington, Jan 5 (efe-epa).- Outgoing United States President Donald Trump signed a decree Tuesday that prohibits transactions with eight Chinese payment computer applications, including Alipay, WeChat Pay and OO Wallet.
The ban, which also affects the applications CamScanner, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate and WPS Office, aims to limit the threat of Chinese computer applications with the ability to access sensitive data from hundreds of thousands of Americans.
“This data collection threatens to provide the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party with access to personal and proprietary information of Americans, which would allow China to track the location of federal employees and contractors,” the decree Trump signed read.
The veto will take effect within 45 days – when Trump has already left power – and will affect any transaction through those applications with people or property subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
China’s efforts to steal data from Americans show that country’s intention to use it “to advance its economic and national security agenda,” he added.
The decree mentions several cyber intrusions attributed to China in recent years that compromised the data of millions of Americans, including one from the Chinese military to the Equifax company in 2017, which affected the personal information of nearly half of all Americans.
“The United States must take aggressive action against those who develop or control connected software applications in China to protect our national security,” Trump said in the text of his executive order.
This decision increases tensions with China before Trump’s Jan. 20 handover of the presidency to Democrat Joe Biden, winner of November’s elections.
The United States has accused China on numerous occasions of being behind cyberattacks against its companies or institutions, but its response has always been to deny it and affirm that it is precisely Washington that promotes espionage against governments, companies or people of other countries. EFE-EPA
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