US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday called for an expansion of the US government's restrictions on Chinese technology, saying he wants to see "untrusted Chinese apps" removed from Apple and Google 's app stores . However, Pompeo's proposal sparked a wave of backlash as it was seen as vague and even illegal.
Pompeo has repeatedly expressed his opposition to Chinese apps. He has described the popular video app TikTok and the messaging app WeChat, which people in the US use to communicate with others in the US and China, as “significant threats to the privacy of American citizens, as well as tools for the Chinese Communist Party to censor content.”
The US government has already banned Chinese technology companies, including Huawei, from its market, urging other countries to stop using Chinese equipment for their 5G networks. It has also banned US telecom companies from using government funds for equipment and services from Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese telecom equipment supplier.
Citing national security concerns, the US government has also banned Google from providing Android apps, such as Google Maps, to Huawei phones. In addition, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering banning Chinese telecom companies China Telecom and China Unicomfrom operating in the US due to national security concerns.
US President Donald Trumphas also threatened to ban TikTok, although the legal basis for such a move is uncertain. Susan Ariel Aaronson, a professor at George Washington University, said that Trump's statement is a communications ploy and nothing more.
Paul Triolo, an analyst at Eurasia Group, said the U.S. government is trying to push allies and companies to stop using Chinese tools and software at all levels of their communications networks, from the Internet backbone to app stores. That includes urging companies to remove their apps from Huawei’s app store, which advertises that it contains apps from European and American companies, such as travel service Booking.com and Amazon.
The legal basis for the US government’s decision to crack down on apps and app stores is unclear, Triolo said. Furthermore, the State Department did not immediately respond to a question about the legal basis the government could use to justify such measures. Finally, Triolo stressed that this US initiative aims to force countries and companies to side with either the US or China, noting that he expects many governments and companies to resist this policy.
