TikTok, WeChat Actions by Trump Targeting China Revoked by Biden -- Update
June 09 2021 - 10:50AM
Dow Jones News
By John D. McKinnon and Alex Leary
WASHINGTON -- President Biden on Wednesday revoked executive
orders targeting the Chinese-owned TikTok and WeChat apps signed by
former President Donald Trump, and signed a new order requiring
security reviews of these and other apps in the jurisdiction of
foreign adversaries.
The new order directs the Commerce Department to instead
evaluate software applications connected with foreign adversaries
under recent U.S. supply-chain security rules "and take action, as
appropriate," according to a fact sheet.
The Commerce Department will be required to review apps
"involving software applications that are designed, developed,
manufactured, or supplied by persons that are owned or controlled
by, or subject to the jurisdiction of a foreign adversary,
including the People's Republic of China, that may present an undue
or unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States
and the American people," according to the White House fact
sheet.
The order also provides criteria for identifying and evaluating
apps that may pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security
and Americans' data security.
This includes apps that "may present a heightened risk when the
transactions involve applications that are owned, controlled, or
managed by persons that support foreign adversary military or
intelligence activities, or are involved in malicious cyber
activities, or involve applications that collect sensitive personal
data."
The Trump administration's executive orders targeting the TikTok
app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd. and the WeChat app owned
by Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings Ltd. had been blocked by federal
court injunctions. In the case of TikTok, Mr. Trump sought to force
a sale of the company to U.S. owners.
The Wall Street Journal reported in February that the Biden
administration had shelved the Trump administration's plan to force
a sale of TikTok amid ongoing legal challenges.
At the time, the Biden administration said it was developing a
comprehensive approach to protecting data security, and was
reviewing the previous administration's action to determine whether
the national security threat cited by Mr. Trump continued to
warrant an outright ban.
Administration officials said that TikTok continues to undergo a
separate review by a government panel that reviews cross-border
transactions.
The action is the latest sign of the Biden administration's
emerging China policy, which represents a tougher approach
acknowledging Beijing's economic and geopolitical strength.
Last week, the president expanded a Trump-era prohibition on
Americans investing in Chinese companies with purported links to
China's military. Many of the newly targeted companies are
subsidiaries and affiliates of major state-owned companies and
other businesses named on the earlier blacklist.
The U.S. in March joined allies in imposing sanctions against
Chinese officials engaged in the mass incarceration of mainly
Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region.
Mr. Biden departed Wednesday for his first overseas trip as
president and will meet with European and NATO leaders as well as a
summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Part of his aim,
officials said, will be to rally allies into taking on Beijing.
The U.S. also is working on supply-chain issues intended to
lessen the dependence on China.
Representatives of TikTok and WeChat didn't immediately respond
to requests for comment.
The executive order authorizes the Commerce Department to begin
vetting foreign apps immediately.
Senior Biden administration officials said the president's new
executive order is designed to replace the Trump administration's
piecemeal company-by-company approach with a more comprehensive
process for reviewing risks posed by many apps that are connected
to potentially hostile countries.
The Biden administration hopes that their new order will put the
effort on a firmer legal footing, even if it means that the orders
are somewhat less punitive.
The original Trump administration order affecting TikTok and its
owner ByteDance, for example, prohibited "any transaction by any
person, or with respect to any property, subject to the
jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd."
The new order also seeks recommendations on further toughening
of the U.S. approach to protect sensitive data such as genetic
information.
But the Biden administration approach still faces difficult
challenges in addressing the complex problems raised by the global
internet.
Notably, the Biden administration plans to seek more involvement
of other friendly countries in its efforts to police data practices
of apps based in potentially unfriendly countries.
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com and Alex
Leary at alex.leary@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 09, 2021 10:36 ET (14:36 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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