U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order banning U.S. transactions with eight Chinese software apps, including Ant Group Co.’s Alipay in 45 days, when he’ll no longer be in office.
The order is the outgoing administration’s latest bid to use national security powers against China’s largest technology companies, but it will be up to President-elect Joe Biden to decide whether to enforce the policy. It also deals another blow to Ant co-founder Jack Ma, who hasn’t been seen in public since Chinese regulators halted Ant’s $35 billion IPO and launched an antitrust probe into Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
The executive order, which directed the Commerce Department to draft rules outlining which payments and transactions will be outlawed, will impact Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s QQ Wallet and WeChat Pay, as well as CamScanner, SHAREit, VMate and WPS Office.
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