![]() First, it collects mobility data and the content of communications from US citizens, permanent residents, and visitors to the US from China, and potentially makes this information available to the Chinese government. Whether the move is worthwhile depends on if it serves some higher purpose effectively.Īccording to Trump’s order, WeChat is guilty of two offenses. Similarly, many academics in the Chinese diaspora now use the service to collaborate with researchers in Singapore, Hong Kong, and mainland China (where it is used much more often than WhatsApp, Zoom, or Skype).īanning WeChat outright will thus disrupt the lives of many US citizens and residents – probably on the order of one million people – who use the app regularly. US residents with family members or friends in China are also likely to use WeChat when they communicate, and Chinese tourists in other countries rely on the app to stay connected while abroad. Even the US Embassy in China has an official WeChat profile, where it broadcasts US government information and provides services to US citizens living and working in China. Virtually every Chinese person with a smartphone has a WeChat account, which they use to stay in touch with friends, family, and work colleagues, and to pay restaurant, utility, and grocery bills. It is now a ubiquitous communications tool, used by young and old alike. WeChat was introduced in 2011, and quickly grew to become China’s dominant social-media app. In 1998, when Tencent was founded, China’s per capita income was a mere $850 – less than 5% of the US level and less than 20% of the Mexican level that year. Property rights protection is weaker, and Chinese Internet users’ purchasing power is much lower than that of Americans. After all, funding for those without family wealth or political connections is scanter in China due to a less developed capital market. If Tencent’s founders, Pony (Huateng) Ma and four other partners, had built their company in the US, they would be celebrated in much the same way that Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk are.Ĭhinese entrepreneurs likely have had to overcome much greater difficulties to succeed than their American counterparts. WeChat, owned by Tencent, a Chinese company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, is a widely used multipurpose app that combines messaging, social media, digital payments, and other functions. But the ban is likely to be counterproductive, and there are better solutions to these problems. NEW YORK – Shortly after US President Donald Trump issued an executive order effectively banning the Chinese-owned social-media app TikTok, he issued a second order prohibiting “any transaction that is related to WeChat by any person … as identified by the Secretary of Commerce.” According to the White House, the WeChat ban – which will take effect on September 20 – is intended to protect Americans and visiting Chinese in the United States from violations of privacy by the Chinese government and to limit fake news from the Chinese government reaching Americans.
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