Beijing strengthening legal shield to counter any foreign sanctions
Despite US President Joe Biden on Wednesday temporarily revoking the bans previous president Donald Trump imposed on the Chinese apps WeChat and TikTok, it is evident that Washington has still not got over its Cold War funk.
In his executive order on the move, Biden said the apps' (alleged) collecting of data from Americans "threatens to provide foreign adversaries with access to that information", and directed the commerce department to "evaluate on a continuing basis" any transactions that "pose an undue risk of catastrophic effects on the security or resiliency of the critical infrastructure or digital economy of the United States."
It should be noted that, according to the White House, a separate US national security review of TikTok launched in late 2019 remains active and ongoing, as the administration remains "very concerned" about certain countries-China being the only one named-that seek to "leverage digital technologies and Americans' data in ways that present unacceptable national security risks while advancing authoritarian controls and interests".