China hits out at US over ban on WeChat and Tiktok as tech war hits new peak

China hit out at the US on Friday after President Donald Trump ordered a ban against transactions on Chinese programs WeChat and TikTok - escalating a tech war between the two superpowers.

Referring to espionage and hacking concerns around the hugely popular apps, the order issued Thursday said "The United States must take aggressive action... to protect our national security."

But China accused it of trying to "suppress" non-US companies.

“The US frequently abuses its national power and unjustifiably suppresses non-US companies,” said Wang Wenbin, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson.

“At the expense of the rights and interest of US users and companies, the US... is carrying out arbitrary political manipulation and suppression.”

Wang also attacked the US for poor market practices by barring the programs, and previously had urged for a “free, open and safe cyberspace.”

But he failed to mention that China already blocks many US platforms including Google, Twitter, Facebook and their suite of services like WhatsApp and YouTube, via government censors dubbed the “Great Firewall.”

The latest salvos in the US-China diplomatic spat come as the Trump administration expanded a plan to guard US digital networks against exposure to Chinese tech companies, which officials say leave Americans and US businesses vulnerable to hacking and spying risks.

Dubbed the “Clean Network,” the US is working to purge “untrusted” Chinese telecoms from American mobile communications networks, mobile apps from app stores, and to prevent sensitive information from being stored on Chinese cloud services.

In the executive orders, Mr Trump claimed that both TikTok and WeChat “automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users” and that such data collection “threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information – potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”

It also allows the Chinese government “a mechanism for keeping tabs” on Chinese citizens overseas, the orders say, which could aid coercion and intimidation campaigns on foreign soil that the US has denounced.

Mr Trump also highlighted that the platforms have been used in disinformation campaigns, as content is censored based on what the Chinese government dislikes – materials that would otherwise be available in the US.

WeChat users, even abroad, have previously been blocked from opening links to Telegraph stories sent through the platform, signalling how widespread the censorship can be.

The orders, issued late Thursday by Mr Trump, will take effect in 45 days and impact “any transaction by any person, or with any respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States” with ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, and WeChat, owned by Chinese tech firm Tencent.

Mr Trump had previously threatened a deadline of September 15 to “close down” TikTok unless another company bought it. Microsoft has been in talks to buy TikTok.