U.S. to purge ‘untrusted’ Chinese apps from U.S. networks

Good morning! Here’s the next step in the ongoing trade war between the United States and China. The Trump administration said on Wednesday that it is stepping up efforts to purge ‘untrusted’ Chinese apps from U.S. digital networks, according to Reuters. TikTok and WeChat were labeled as ‘significant threats.” These steps will likely affect the DJI and Autel apps that you can find in Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store as well.

U.S. to purge ‘untrusted’ Chinese apps

According to Reuters, the Trump administration said on Wednesday that it will take steps to purge the U.S. networks from ‘untrusted’ Chinese apps such as TikTok and WeChat. These steps will likely impact Autel Robotics and DJI. Especially DJI has a large number of apps, such as DJI Go 4, DJI Fly, DJI Pilot, DJI Mimo, and others, available on Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store.

The government program is called ‘Clean Network’ and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that it includes five steps aimed to protect American citizens and businesses from Chinese apps and Chinese telecoms from accessing sensitive information.

The announcement to purge the U.S. networks from ‘untrusted’ Chinese apps comes after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok.

“With parent companies based in China, apps like TikTok, WeChat and others are significant threats to personal data of American citizens, not to mention tools for CCP (Chinese Communist Party) content censorship,” Pompeo said.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said in an interview with state news agency Xinhua on Wednesday that the United States “has no right” to set up the “Clean Network.” He referred to the actions announced by Pompeo as “a textbook case of bullying”.

“Anyone can see through clearly that the intention of the U.S. is to protect its monopoly position in technology and to rob other Countries of their proper right to development,” said Wang.

The ‘Clean Network’ program

The announcement of the ‘Clean Network’ program is the latest development in the ongoing trade war between the United States and China.

Pompeo commented that he joins Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf in urging the Federal Communications Commission, to terminate authorizations for China Telecom and three other companies to provide services to and from the United States, reports Reuters.

Pompeo’s remarks on Wednesday are part of an effort by the U.S. Government to limit the access of Chinese tech companies to U.S. citizens and businesses.

Reuters also reported that Huawei Technologies and Tencent declined to comment. Alibaba, Apple, China Telecom, China Mobile and Baidu did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Chinese drone makers DJI and Autel Robotics are not specifically mentioned in the article but it seems that their apps will be placed under increased scrutiny as well. It will be interesting to see how DJI and Autel respond and what the impact will be. We will keep a close eye on this space.

What do you think about the ‘Clean Network’ program? Let us know in the comments below.

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