Trump’s attacks on China backfires. After accusing the United States’ ban on Chinese apps as “violation of the first amendment”, China is now preparing to blacklist several foreign companies operation. The realization of this plan may put global companies such as Apple, Qualcomm, and others in threat.
China is fed up: complaints filed, accuses the United States of First Amendment violation
The news of WeChat and TikTok operation restriction from yesterday seem to have cut China’s patience. Previously, TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, has recently decided to join hands with Oracle. In the future, Oracle will take control of the application’s data management in the United States, which was the root of the whole fiasco. Despite the step taken by ByteDance, TikTok is still strictly restricted in the United States until further notice.
Upon the news, TikTok and ByteDance have reportedly filed a complaint on the mistreatment. According to Yahoo! Finance, both companies accused the ban as closely political-related, and thus, violated the company’s First Amendment rights. Both ByteDance and TikTok hope for a “declaratory judgment” and a reproach for the restriction of the app.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) supports the argument and further calls the scheme as a “selective ban”. Through ACLU’s series of tweets, the union argues the ban of the application may put harm on the privacy and security of millions of existing TikTok and WeChat users. Allowing software updates may instead fix vulnerabilities and the apps’ security. The union added that the ban violates the First Amendment rights to freely communicate and conduct important transactions on the mentioned apps.
Will China blacklist foreign companies in the future?
The piling anger from both country’s dispute finally explodes into a bigger problem. The New York Times reported China’s Ministry of Commerce published rules outlining “unreliable entities list” last Saturday. As of now, officials have not yet revealed specific companies or individuals included in the list yet. However, the publishing of the rule itself indicates China’s intention to limit, or even blacklist overseas entities from their operation and activity in China.
While the new rules might complicate a lot of corporations, the decision could be as harmful to China’s economy. China is known as the production industry due to the country’s capability to produce cheaper goods quickly and efficiently. Several companies that may be heavily affected by the rules are Apple and Tesla.
However, fewer companies involved with the country means less production too. Less production means less work for the citizens. Hence, it is a possibility that the country might suffer millions of unemployment cases if the rules apply, the New York Times suspects.
Read also: Trump Continues The Strikes on Chinese Apps
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