China yesterday launched a mechanism that would allow it to sanction foreign companies, upping the ante in a tech dispute with the US a day after Washington moved to curb popular Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat.
China’s long-expected “unreliable entities list” is seen as a weapon for Beijing to retaliate against the US, which has used its own “entity list” to shut Chinese telecom giant Huawei out of the US market, while also moving against TikTok and WeChat.
Its implementation comes just a day after the US Department of Commerce stepped up the pressure by ordering a ban on downloads of video app TikTok and effectively blocking the use of WeChat, the Chinese “super app.”
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce announcement did not mention any specific foreign entities that could be targeted.
It said the new system would consider sanctions on entities whose activities “harm China’s national sovereignty, security and development interests” or breach “internationally accepted economic and trade rules.”
That language closely tracks wording that Beijing has used to repeatedly denounce US actions against Chinese companies.
Punitive measures might include fines against the foreign entity, banning it from conducting trade and investment in China, and restrictions on the entry of personnel or equipment into the country.
It covers “foreign enterprises, other organizations and individuals,” the ministry said.
Under the US order against the Chinese apps, WeChat, owned by Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), would lose functionality in the US from today.
TikTok users would be banned from installing updates, but could continue to access the service through Nov. 12.
That timeframe potentially allows for a tie-up between TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動), and a US company to safeguard data for the wildly popular app to allay Washington’s security concerns.
With US President Donald Trump facing a tough re-election campaign, US officials have described the measures as essential to safeguard national security from potential Chinese espionage through the platforms.
In a response to the US steps, the ministry condemned what it called US “bullying,” saying it breached international trade norms and that there was no evidence of any security threat.
“If the US insists on going its own way, China will take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” it said, without specifying the potential measures.
TikTok vowed to fight the Trump crackdown in court, saying it impedes a tool “for entertainment, self-expression and connection.”
Critics said that although the security risks were unclear, the sweeping ban raises concerns about the US government’s ability to regulate free expression.
“It’s a mistake to think of this as [only] a sanction on TikTok and WeChat. It’s a serious restriction on the First Amendment rights of US citizens and residents,” said Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.
“For ByteDance, their back is against the wall to accept the terms of the deals outlined over the past few days,” Daniel Ives at Wedbush Securities said in a research note.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS