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Navarro: Expect Trump Administration to Take More Action on TikTok, WeChat

Gordon Chang: On the Hong Kong Security Law, the India China Standoff, and Banning TikTok

Just over a week in, what do we know about the National Security Law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing? Why hasn’t President Trump yet signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act? How is the Chinese regime becoming increasingly belligerent internationally, from its border with India to the South China Sea? And, how does the Chinese regime mine and use the data of Americans? Should the U.S. ban Chinese-owned apps like TikTok? In this episode, we sit down with political commentator and China analyst Gordon Chang, author of “The Coming Collapse of China.” This is American Thought Leaders ??, and I’m Jan Jekielek. American Thought Leaders is an Epoch Times show available on Facebook and YouTube and The Epoch Times website.  Follow Jan on Twitter: @JanJekielek Focus News: Gordon Chang: On the Hong…

Navarro: Expect Trump Administration to Take More Action on TikTok, WeChat

White House trade adviser and Defense Production Act (DPA) coordinator Peter Navarro on July 12 said he expects President Donald Trump will take “strong action” against Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat.

Navarro told Fox News Sunday to expect that the president will take action against the social media apps for engaging in “information warfare” against the United States. These include China’s largest messaging app WeChat, owned by tech giant Tencent, and ByteDance’s TikTok, which has attracted heightened scrutiny due to surveillance and censorship concerns.

“TikTok, WeChat, I suspect the president is just getting started with those two,” Navarro told the news outlet, noting India’s recent ban on 59, mostly Chinese, mobile apps, including TikTok and WeChat.

Navarro didn’t elaborate on whether the president was considering a U.S. ban on the Chinese-owned apps, but said the president wouldn’t rule it out.

“TikTok and WeChat are the biggest forms of censorship on the Chinese mainland, and so expect strong action on that,” Navarro alleged.

“What the American people have to understand is all the data that goes into those mobile apps that kids have so much fun with and seem so convenient, it goes right to servers in China, right to the Chinese military, the Chinese Communist Party, and the agencies that want to steal our intellectual property,” he told Fox News.

“Those apps can be used to steal personal and financial information for blackmail and extortion, they can be used to steal business intellectual property and proprietary secrets.”

TikTok, which is not available in China, has sought to distance itself from ByteDance to appeal to a global audience and claims to be independent of the Chinese regime. The company runs a similar short form video sharing app called Douyin within mainland China.

Navarro: Expect Trump Administration to Take More Action on TikTok, WeChat A person holds a smartphone as TikTok logo is displayed behind in this picture illustration taken on Nov. 7, 2019. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Meanwhile WeChat, which has over a billion monthly active users worldwide, is known to censor its users in China to ensure content falls within topics deemed acceptable by the Chinese Communist Party.

Navarro’s comments come after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week that the Trump administration is considering banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok, which is among the fastest growing digital platforms in history.

“I don’t want to get out in front of the president, but it’s something we’re looking at,” Pompeo said.

When asked if Americans should download the app, he told Fox News, “Only if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Navarro: Expect Trump Administration to Take More Action on TikTok, WeChat President Donald Trump arrives to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on July 10, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. lawmakers have raised national security concerns over TikTok’s handling of user data, citing Chinese laws that require domestic companies “to support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.”

In March, two Republican senators introduced a bill aimed at banning federal employees from using TikTok on their government-issued phones, amid growing national security concerns around the collection and sharing of data on U.S. users with the Chinese communist regime.

Amazon requested employees remove the video sharing app from their phones by July 10 due to “security risks,” while the United States Navy banned TikTok from government-issued mobile devices last year, saying the short video app represented a “cybersecurity threat.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

Focus News: Navarro: Expect Trump Administration to Take More Action on TikTok, WeChat

US Warns Americans in China of ‘Heightened Risk’ of Arbitrary Detention, Exit Bans

The U.S. state department has warned Americans to exercise “increased caution” in China due to an elevated risk of arbitrary law enforcement, including detention and bans on exiting the country. The security alert, issued on July 11 by the U.S. Embassy in China, said U.S. citizens “may be detained without access to U.S. consular services or information about their alleged crime.” It added that Americans may be subject to “prolonged interrogations and extended detention for reasons related to ‘state security.’” “Security personnel may detain and/or deport U.S. citizens for sending private electronic messages critical of the PRC [People’s Republic of China] government,” the alert said. It did not provide specific examples. The department did not say what prompted the notice. The move comes amid deteriorating relations between Washington and Beijing…