CamScanner, SHAREit, Tencent among 8 Chinese apps banned by Trump in US

The global crackdown on Chinese mobile applications has now seen the United States follow India's footsteps in "addressing the threat posed by applications and other software developed or controlled by Chinese companies".

United States President Donald Trump has ordered a ban on at least 8 Chinese applications which have been downloaded by millions on US soil.
 

The ban on Chinese apps, which include Alipay, CamScanner, QQ Wallet, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate, WeChat Pay, and WPS Office, will come into effect 45 days from January 5 or after the Joe Biden administration has taken over.

The Trump administration order cites the Indian government's decision to ban over 200 Chinese apps.

The order cited the Indian Information Technology statement, which asserted that the "applications were stealing and surreptitiously transmitting user data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India".
 

Justifying the ban, Trump's order said that the United States had assessed that a number of Chinese-connected software applications "automatically capture vast swaths of information from millions of users in the United States, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information, which would allow the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information". 

"The continuing activity of the PRC and the CCP to steal or otherwise obtain the United States persons’ data makes clear that there is an intent to use bulk data collection to advance China’s economic and national security agenda," Donald Trump's executive order read.
 

"The United States must take aggressive action against those who develop or control Chinese connected software applications to protect our national security," it added.