US welcomes India’s ban on China-linked apps, says it will ‘boost national security’

New Delhi: Two days after the government announced an interim ban on 59 apps with Chinese links, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Wednesday welcomed the move and said that “India’s clean app approach will boost sovereignty, integrity and national security”.
“We welcome India’s ban on certain mobile apps that can serve as appendages of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state. India’s clean app approach will boost India’s sovereignty, integrity and national security,” Pompeo said in a statement.
Citing the “emergent nature of threats” from mobile applications, including popular ones of Chinese origin such as TikTok, ShareIt, UCBrowser, Club Factory and CamScanner, the Centre Monday banned 59 apps based on information that they were engaged in activities “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity”, defence, security and public order.
The ban is “interim in nature” and the firms behind these apps have been given 48 hours to provide clarifications on key issues, officials said. The move is seen as a retaliatory step amid the tense border standoff between India and China that led to 20 Indian Army personnel being killed on June 15. State-owned telecom companies have since moved to keep Chinese vendors out of their network upgradation tenders.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi quit Chinese social media platform Weibo, which the BJP said was a “strong message” at the border, on economic front and now at “personal level too”.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has formally designated Chinese telecom vendors Huawei Technologies Company and ZTE Corporation, all their parent and subsidiaries, as well as affiliate firms, as “national security threats”.