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Eugene

(61,592 posts)
Mon Aug 10, 2020, 07:44 PM Aug 2020

Trump WeChat ban 'an unwelcome signal' for Chinese community

Source: BBC

Trump WeChat ban 'an unwelcome signal' for Chinese community

By Zhaoyin Feng & Joshua Cheetham
BBC News

10 August 2020

For the global Chinese community, WeChat is more than a chat app: it is often the primary means of staying in touch with friends and family back home.

So the decision last week by US President Donald Trump to order American firms to stop doing business with WeChat has sent shockwaves rippling out.

"WeChat has become the 'it' tool for Chinese-speaking people, no matter where you are around the world," one Shanghai resident told the BBC.

The billion-user app is primarily a social networking platform but can be used for a host of daily activities like shopping, gaming and even dating.

But WeChat has a less innocent side, and is seen a key instrument of China's internal surveillance apparatus.

-snip-


Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-53686507
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