US using national security as excuse to bring down non-American companies, says China

The US has been using national security as an excuse to bring down non-American companies, China said on Monday.

The US has been using national security as an excuse to bring down non-American companies, China said on Monday. "TikTok has met almost all US demands, but still cannot be spared. Such bullying practice deviates from international trade rules and fair competition. It will also hurt US' own interests," Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on August 14, requiring ByteDance to divest its interests in video-sharing app TikTok's operations in the US within 90 days. "There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance ... might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States," the US President said in the order.

The new order came after an earlier executive order was signed by Trump. The previous order could have forced US-based app stores to stop distributing the TikTok app if ByteDance did not reach a deal to divest from it in 45 days. Under the latest order, ByteDance is expected to destroy all its copies of TikTok data attached to American users.

Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said that the Trump administration is "working hard" to protect Americans from the threats of "untrusted vendors" such as TikTok and WeChat, which it wants to remove from US app stores like those operated by Apple and Google. US politicians have repeatedly criticized TikTok, owned by Beijing-based startup ByteDance, of being a threat to national security because of its ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

China and the US are at loggerheads on a variety of issues including Hong Kong national security law, the South China Sea, coronavirus, and trade. Last month, India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) banned 47 apps, which were variants and cloned copies of the 59 apps banned earlier in June. These banned clones include Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, SHAREit Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite and VFY Lite.