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Anonymous ID: d1cb99 Sept. 18, 2020, 6:29 a.m. No.10693158   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3252 >>3473 >>3621

POTUS to block U.S. downloads of TikTok, WeChat on Sunday

 

The U.S. Commerce Department plans to issue an order Friday that will bar people in the United States from downloading Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok starting on September 20, three officials told Reuters. The officials said the ban on new U.S. downloads of TikTok could be still rescinded by President Donald Trump before it takes effect late Sunday as TikTok owner ByteDance races to clinch an agreement over the fate of its U.S. operations.

 

ByteDance has been talks with Oracle Corp and others to create a new company, TikTok Global, that aims to address U.S. concerns about the security of its users’ data. ByteDance still needs Trump’s approval to stave off a U.S. ban.

 

The Commerce Department order will “deplatform” the two apps in the United States and bar Apple Inc’s app store, Alphabet Inc’s Google Play and others from offering the apps on any platform “that can be reached from within the United States,” a senior Commerce official told Reuters. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made public.

 

The order will not ban U.S. companies from doing businesses on WeChat outside the United States, which will be welcome news to U.S. firms like Walmart and Starbucks that use WeChat’s embedded ‘mini-app’ programs to facilitate transactions and engage consumers in China. The order will not bar transactions with WeChat-owner Tencent Holdings’ other businesses, including its online gaming operations and will not prohibit Apple, Google or others from offering TikTok or WeChat apps anywhere outside the United States.

 

The bans are in response to a pair of executive orders issued by Trump on Aug. 6 that gave the Commerce Department 45 days to determine what transactions to block from the apps he deemed pose a national security threat. That deadline expires on Sunday. Commerce Department officials said they were taking the extraordinary step because of the risks the apps’ data collection poses. China and the companies have denied U.S. user data is collected for spying.

 

In a statement to Reuters, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said “we have taken significant action to combat China’s malicious collection of American citizens’ personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of U.S. laws and regulations.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-tiktok-ban/exclusive-trump-to-block-u-s-downloads-of-tiktok-wechat-on-sunday-officials-idUSL1N2GF039

Anonymous ID: d1cb99 Sept. 18, 2020, 6:41 a.m. No.10693224   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3252 >>3476 >>3626

Taiwan scrambles jets as 18 Chinese planes buzz island

 

TAIPEI/BEIJING – Taiwan scrambled fighter jets on Friday as 18 Chinese aircraft buzzed the island, including crossing the sensitive mid-line of the Taiwan Strait, in an escalation of tensions as a senior U.S. official held talks in Taipei. China had earlier announced the start of combat drills near the Taiwan Strait, denouncing what it called collusion between the island, which it claims as part of its territory, and the United States.

 

U.S. Undersecretary for Economic Affairs Keith Krach arrived in Taipei on Thursday for a three-day visit, the most senior State Department official to come to Taiwan in four decades - which China had said would prompt a "necessary response". Beijing has watched with growing alarm the ever-closer relationship between Taipei and Washington, and has stepped up military exercises near the island, including two days of large-scale air and sea drills last week.

 

With a U.S. presidential election looming in November, Sino-U.S. relations are under huge strain from a trade war, U.S. digital security concerns and the coronavirus pandemic. Taiwan said 18 Chinese aircraft were involved on Friday, a far larger number than it has previously announced for such encounters.

 

"Sep. 18, two H-6 bombers, eight J-16 fighters, four J-10 fighters and four J-11 fighters crossed the midline of the TaiwanStrait and entered Taiwan's southwest ADIZ," the defence ministry said in an English-language tweet. "ROCAF scrambled fighters, and deployed air defence missile system to monitor the activities." The ROCAF, Taiwan's air force, has scrambled frequently in recent months in response to Chinese intrusions.

 

The ministry showed a map of the flight paths of Chinese jets crossing the Taiwan Strait mid-line, which normally combat aircraft from both sides avoid passing through. Taiwan's Liberty Times newspaper said Taiwan air force jets had scrambled 17 times on Friday morning over four hours, warning China's air force to stay away. It also showed a picture of missiles being loaded onto an F-16 fighter at the Hualien air base on Taiwan's east coast. In Beijing, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said Friday's manoeuvres, about which he gave no details, involved the People's Liberation Army's eastern theatre command.

 

"They are a reasonable, necessary action aimed at the current situation in the Taiwan Strait and protecting national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Ren said. He said Taiwan was a purely internal Chinese affair and accused its ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of stepping up "collusion" with the United States.

 

Trying to "use Taiwan to control China" or "rely on foreigners to build oneself up" was wishful thinking and futile. "Those who play with fire will get burnt," Ren said Taiwan's presidential office urged China to exercise restraint, and urged the Taiwanese not to be alarmed, saying the military had a grasp on the situation.

 

Hu Xijin, editor of China's widely read state-backed Global Times tabloid, wrote on his Weibo microblog that the drills were preparation for an attack on Taiwan should the need arise, and that they enabled intelligence-gathering about Taiwan's defence systems. "If the U.S. secretary of state or defence secretary visits Taiwan, People's Liberation Army fighters should fly over Taiwan island, and directly exercise in the skies above it," he added.

 

Chinese fighter jets briefly crossed the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait last month as the U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar was in Taipei, and last week China carried out two days of large-scale drills off Taiwan's southwestern coast. The United States, like most countries, has official ties only with China, not Taiwan, though Washington is the island's main arms supplier and most important international backer.

 

This week, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations had lunch with Taiwan's top envoy in New York. China's U.N. mission said it had lodged "stern representations" over the meeting.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/US-China-tensions/Taiwan-scrambles-jets-as-18-Chinese-planes-buzz-island