Whilst I don’t necessarily believe the trade war with China is a negative, the way Trump personally conducts himself is concerning. However, the threats to ban TikTok and WeChat are pretty decent decisions.
The great firewall of China has banned websites like Google, Twitter and Facebook - it is not limited to these sites. WhatsApp, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, Quora, Reddit, Viber, Messenger, Amazon, Hangouts, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, YouTube and Wikipedia are all banned.
The better question is, well, what isn’t banned? It isn’t much, but Chinese websites can operate on open democracies with immunity. WeChat, TikTok and Alibaba have no issues connecting China to the world through state censored filters.
So, if Trump were to ban WeChat from the US, the very act will cause not only concern but further isolation. An effective ban would threaten conversations between Chinese individuals contacting families, business associates and friends. While this would be a huge inconvenience, what would be the ramifications?
The Chinese authorities then have a quandary, they cannot reciprocate in banning US websites in China in a repeat of the tit-for-tat closure of the US consulate in Chengdu after the Chinese consulate in Houston was closed.
Chinese security forces regularly use WeChat to intimidate and coerce Chinese nationals living abroad in acts of diaspora. This will certainly curb Chinese influence in the US, this also affects US businesses conducting relations with the parent company, Tencent.
This is actually a very strategic move by the Trump administration, this smacks of Peter Navarro influences. Now, a full ban of Chinese websites including Alibaba will require the CCP to reflect on the Great Firewall of China, they may indeed allow US firms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter to operate in China in a reciprocal manner.
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