Trump Signs Executive Order to Ban US Transactions With WeChat Pay and 7 Other Chinese Apps

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese apps, including WeChat Pay and AliPay (via Reuters).

alipay wechat pay
The order prohibits all U.S. transactions with the companies behind the apps, the full list of which includes Alipay, CamScanner, QQ Wallet, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate, WeChat Pay, and WPS Office.

The order tasks the Commerce Department with defining which transactions will be banned under the directive within 45 days, but a U.S. official told Reuters that the Commerce Department plans to act before January 20, when Trump leaves office.

"By accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, Chinese connected software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information," the executive order states.

Such data collection "would permit China to track the locations of federal employees and contractors, and build dossiers of personal information," the document adds.

The named apps are extremely popular with Chinese mobile device users, and if the order was successful, the bans would be a significant blow to Chinese Americans who use apps like WeChat to communicate.

The new orders are in addition to two earlier ones signed by Trump in August that attempted to ban transactions with WeChat and TikTok's parent company, ByteDance. The first order was blocked by a judge in September and then again in October, while a preliminary injunction granted by another judge in December prevented the TikTok ban from going ahead.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.4 and iOS 27 Features Revealed in New Leak

Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28. The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
Apple Logo Top Half

Early iOS 26 Software Leak Uncovers Dozens of Upcoming Apple Features

Monday December 15, 2025 3:05 pm PST by
Software from an iPhone prototype running an early build of iOS 26 leaked last week, giving us a glimpse at future Apple devices and iOS features. We recapped device codenames in our prior article, and now we have a list of some of the most notable feature flags that were found in the software code. In some cases, it's obvious what the feature flags are referring to, while some are more...
apple beta 26 lineup

Apple Leak Confirms Work on Foldable iPhone, AirTag 2, and Dozens More Devices

Monday December 15, 2025 2:05 pm PST by
Last week, details about unreleased Apple devices and future iOS features were shared by Macworld. This week, we learned where the information came from, plus we have more findings from the leak. As it turns out, an Apple prototype device running an early build of iOS 26 was sold, and the person who bought it shared the software. The OS has a version number of 23A5234w, and the first...
iOS 26

iOS 26.3 Beta 1 Features: What's New So Far

Monday December 15, 2025 4:23 pm PST by
Apple is testing iOS 26.3, the next version of iOS 26 that will launch around January. Since iOS 26.3's testing is happening over the holidays, it is a smaller update with fewer features than we've seen in prior betas. We've rounded up what's new so far, and we'll add to our list with subsequent betas if we come across any other features. Transfer to Android Apple is making it simpler...
Apple Foldable Thumb

Leak Reveals Foldable iPhone Details

Monday December 15, 2025 9:09 am PST by
The first foldable iPhone will feature a series of design and hardware firsts for Apple, according to details shared by the Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station. According to a new post, via machine translation, Apple is developing what the leaker describes as a "wide foldable" device, a term used to refer to a horizontally oriented, book-style foldable with a large internal display....
iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.2 With Alarms for Reminders, Lock Screen Changes, Enhanced Safety Alerts and More

Friday December 12, 2025 10:10 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. ‌iOS 26‌.2 is compatible with the ‌iPhone‌ 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation ‌iPhone‌ SE. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
airpods max 2024 colors

AirPods Max 2 Likely to Offer These 10 New Features

Monday December 15, 2025 7:41 am PST by
Apple released the AirPods Max on December 15, 2020, meaning the over-ear headphones launched five years ago today. While the AirPods Max were updated with a USB-C port and new color options last year, followed by support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio this year, the headphones lack some of the features that have been introduced for newer generations of the regular AirPods and the ...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features on Your iPhone

Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon. Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week. iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...

Top Rated Comments

farewelwilliams Avatar
65 months ago

China are dangerous, they want to rule the world and they will stop at nothing, we still don't know if the whole CCP-Virus was man-made, there is substantial evidence to suggest that it was, but it's just hearsay until you get concrete evidence.
Where is this evidence?

It's ridiculous to just throw out stories and attach the word "evidence" with nothing to back that up.

I could say "there was substantial evidence that scientists from USA setup a lab in Wuhan to engineer this virus so that the world would blame China for the virus". It doesn't make it anymore false or true than your assertion unless you provide some link.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GCHASE1995 Avatar
65 months ago

Yeah, but how many of them are the walking dead, and how many of them had their vote flipped, or didn't vote in the first place?

Unless the truth comes out with regards to this whole election mess, I can see years of unrest - it needs to be resolved one way or the other.

Do you think Biden would be interested in investigating all the evidence if he gets in?
Where can I buy your tinfoil hat? Plus trump tried to commit voter fraud twice ?
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vicviper789 Avatar
65 months ago
What evidence do you have before suggesting spreading fake news

I wouldn't worry about offending anybody , the problem is that when you have a debate, there will always be someone that will be offended - the real skill in life is to not take offence by other peoples points of view - the old adage of "sticks and stones...."....a good healthy debate is guaranteed to "offend" someone down the line.

In all honesty, the way China are behaving, especially over the whole COVID-19 situation is disgraceful, the more that is done round the world to curb their influence, and power the better - the problem you have at the moment is there are all these entities, BLM, ANTIFA, CCP, the EU etc that all have one goal in the world, to be the rulers - and they will stop at nothing.

China are dangerous, they want to rule the world and they will stop at nothing, we still don't know if the whole CCP-Virus was man-made, there is substantial evidence to suggest that it was, but it's just hearsay until you get concrete evidence.

In my personal view, the world should be focused on China, they should be holding them to account, and the less finances that head in their direction, at the moment....the better.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
contacos Avatar
65 months ago
why does the transition from one president to the next take so long in the US? It gives them way too much time to be like SCREW YOU before leaving the office.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
farewelwilliams Avatar
65 months ago

https://www.livemint.com/news/world/nobel-winning-scientist-claims-covid-19-virus-was-man-made-in-wuhan-lab-11587303649821.html

https://londonlovesbusiness.com/scientist-says-covid-19-is-man-made-and-was-released-from-wuhan-lab/

And what happened to the scientist that wanted to tell the world about the virus that escaped, and disappeared....Shi Zhengli is her name - search for he.
First link says
"Just in case you don't know. Dr Montagnier has been rolling downhill incredibly fast in the last few years. From baselessly defending homeopathy to becoming an antivaxxer. Whatever he says, just don't believe him,"

Did some googling, turns out, it's true. He's gone off to the deep end:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2012/05/27/nobel-laureate-joins-anti-vaccination-crowd-at-autism-one/?sh=33d13c2c5c53
"Montagnier is promoting wild theories with little scientific basis, and now he is taking advantage of vulnerable parents (see his appeal here) to push a therapy of long-term antibiotic treatment for autistic children."
"Montagnier hasn't been able to publish this in a proper journal, for a very good reason: it's nonsense. He claims that quantum field theory - an area of physics in which he has no qualifications - explains how electromagnetic waves emanating from DNA can explain not only autism, but also Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, Lyme disease, and rheumatoid arthritis"

I can't find any info of the doctor in the second link.

I'm going to file this under "BS" until someone more credible says otherwise.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
xnsys Avatar
65 months ago
I wouldn't worry about offending anybody , the problem is that when you have a debate, there will always be someone that will be offended - the real skill in life is to not take offence by other peoples points of view - the old adage of "sticks and stones...."....a good healthy debate is guaranteed to "offend" someone down the line.

In all honesty, the way China are behaving, especially over the whole COVID-19 situation is disgraceful, the more that is done round the world to curb their influence, and power the better - the problem you have at the moment is there are all these entities, BLM, ANTIFA, CCP, the EU etc that all have one goal in the world, to be the rulers - and they will stop at nothing.

China are dangerous, they want to rule the world and they will stop at nothing, we still don't know if the whole CCP-Virus was man-made, there is substantial evidence to suggest that it was, but it's just hearsay until you get concrete evidence.

In my personal view, the world should be focused on China, they should be holding them to account, and the less finances that head in their direction, at the moment....the better.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)