The tensions between the United States and China are endless. In early August, Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at banning WeChat and TikTok if they were not acquired by an American company. This announcement caused a lot of noise in China, prompting (almost a month later) the Chinese government to react.
China Speaks As WeChat Ban Approaches
The days are numbered and there isn't long left until WeChat forcibly disappears from the App Store and Google Play in the United States. On the side of the entertainment application TikTok, we are trying to get bought by an American company to avoid the ban. The Chinese government spoke today about Donald Trump's decree that openly attacks Chinese-origin applications. Unsurprisingly, the government says it is disappointed with such a reaction from the White House, especially since the two cited apps do not spy on American users. Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, spoke to the media a few hours ago. Clearly, it involved retaliation against Apple if WeChat was removed from the App Store in the United States - if WeChat is banned, then there will be no reason for the Chinese to keep their iPhones and Apple products. Many Chinese say they could stop using an iPhone if WeChat is banned.
WeChat is a trap for the Chinese diaspora
Resident Donald Trump issued two executive orders prohibiting US transactions with Chinese tech companies ByteDance, which owns TikTok, and Tencent, the owner of WeChat, related to those services.
It's unclear what exactly the bans will entail, but a WeChat ban is likely to create significant disruptions to communications and business transactions between people in China and the United States and possibly the rest of the world. That has caused concern and discomfort, with good reason. However, while the political motivation behind Trump's ban and its implications for free speech are cause for concern, the threat posed by WeChat must also be taken seriously. WeChat is not just a tool for many users; it's a trap.
With more than 1.2 billion monthly active users around the world, WeChat is a super application that combines the functions of social media, messaging, financial services, travel, food delivery, transportation and other applications. It's so convenient that not having WeChat is as unimaginable for people in China as not having a smartphone.
That is partly the result of good programming and partly of deliberate politics. The Chinese government excludes foreign tech companies, installs a Great Firewall to block websites that don't comply with its censorship regime, and penalizes people who try to circumvent it. At the same time, it nurtures a handful of national platforms like WeChat that censor and monitor its users on its behalf and hand over user data to the government when so-called sensitive information is discovered. The authorities also directly integrate cybersecurity police units in the main Internet companies.
WeChat has thus become a complete digital ecosystem where people in China lead their entire digital lives and are trapped in their controlled information environment with no meaningful options.
Anyone outside the country who wants to connect with people in China has to use what is available in China and is therefore also sucked into the Chinese government's censorship and surveillance machinery. International WeChat users are estimated to be between 100 and 200 million; there is an average of 19 million daily active users in the United States. A recent study by Citizen Lab showed that WeChat monitors its users outside of China to create the database it uses to censor accounts registered in China. As international users are governed by Singapore's terms of service and privacy policies, it is unclear whether WeChat shares this information with the Chinese government. But it is essential to remember that all Chinese companies are subject to government control.
Those free speech implications don't just apply within China.
WeChat's centrality in acquiring information and communicating among the Chinese diaspora, especially first-generation immigrants from China, should be a source of real concern elsewhere.
For the past two years, I have been interviewing members of the Chinese diaspora around the world about the Chinese government's activities that undermine human rights abroad. A recurring issue I run into is that some of my sources only wanted to use WeChat
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