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Alipay logo: The ban is only due to come into force in 45 days
Photo: THOMAS PETER / REUTERS
Donald Trump failed with his attack on TikTok.
In the last few days of his term in office, the outgoing US president is now trying to ban other apps from China.
The payment services Alipay and WeChat Pay are among the eight applications to be pushed out of the US market.
Trump on Tuesday issued a decree prohibiting business with the apps.
The Trump administration justified the move by saying that the programs could be misused for espionage purposes.
User data could therefore be forwarded to the government in Beijing.
The Trump administration therefore sees these apps as a threat to “national security”.
The apps were selected for the ban because they were downloaded in large numbers in the United States, said a senior government official.
This brings with it the risk that tens of millions of user data could be misused.
It is up to Biden to execute or cancel the order
However, the ban will only come into force with the usual 45-day delay, once the new President Joe Biden is already in office.
The transfer of power in Washington is scheduled for January 20th.
The government official said the ban on the apps had not been discussed with the "potential" Biden government.
Trump does not recognize his election defeat against Biden so far.
Biden accuses him of hindering the handover of official business to the new government.
Trump had tried since the summer to force a sale of at least the US business of the popular video app Tiktok to American companies through bans.
But first the Chinese government torpedoed the talks with sales restrictions for the corresponding software.
And then US judges also found that Trump's government did not have a sufficient legal basis for their action, the TikTok bans are suspended.
The other apps now affected include the scanning application CamScanner, the chat service Tencent QQ, the video app VMate and the office software WPS Office.
US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced that he had ordered the implementation of Trump's decree.
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apr / dpa / AFP