‘US helped India decide on banning Chinese apps’
WASHINGTON: While India decided independently to ban over 50 apps linked to China as part of its campaign to punish Beijing for the Galwan Valley clashes, the US indicated it played an enabling role with its effort to “assist” New Delhi with information it needed to make the right choice.
No details were forthcoming. But the United States has been considering a ban on some of these apps, such as video-sharing app TikTok, as has been said by both President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as they ratchet up their attacks on China over a growing list of disagreements.
“We’ve been working closely with the Indians across a broad spectrum of the – the full range of international partnership with them to assist them in making sure they had all the information they needed to make good decisions,” Pompeo said in an interaction hosted by the Economic Club of New York, a non-profit.
Pompeo was responding to a question if America was alone in confronting China over its trade “thievery”, using his own words, “lies” in South China Sea, and its attempt to leverage its outsized clout in WHO to escape accountability for Covid-19 pandemic that started in Wuhan last December.
“They made decision that they were going to pull 50 or so Chinese apps off systems that were operating inside of India,”he said, and added, “They didn’t do that because the US told them to. They did it because they could see the threat from the Chinese Communist Party.” Pompeo, who is spearheading Trump administration’s growing hawkishness on China, went on to indicate the US may have played a similar role in UK’s ban on Huawei from its 5G network, reversing its long-held position that had caused frustration in the United States, which has declared the telecommunications giant with links to Beijing a national security risk.
Separately, White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said TikTok pulling itself out of its Chinese holding company and operating as an independent American company is a much better solution than banning it.
When asked whether any US company would like to buy the Chinese firm, he said: “I don’t want to speculate on that...That’s really a market question, but I’m just saying that’s a much better solution than banning.”
The US, meanwhile, also indicated that it may take a decision on banning the Chinese applications within weeks after a campaign to bar them gained momentum.“I do not think there is any self-imposed deadline for action, but I think we are looking at weeks, not months,” White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters on Wednesday aboard Air Force One, flying with President Trump from Atlanta.