Mike Pompeo welcomes India’s ban on apps

WASHINGTON: US secretary of state Mike Pompeo on Wednesday welcomed India’s ban on certain Chinese apps that he said “can serve as appendages of Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state”.
He added that New Delhi’s “clean app approach will boost India’s sovereignty and boost integrity and national security”.
India’s ban has been widely noted in the US, including by some prominent lawmakers, who have urged US to follow suit. “India bans TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps in the wake of deadly clash,” Republican senator John Cornyn tweeted as he tagged a Washington Post report. Republican Congressman Rick Crawford tweeted that “TikTok must go and it should have been gone yesterday”.
Last week, US national security adviser Robert O’Brien had alleged that the Chinese government is using TikTok for its own purposes. “On TikTok, a Chinese-owned platform with over 40 million American users, probably a lot of your kids, and younger colleagues, accounts criticising CCP and Beijing’s policies are routinely removed or deleted,” O’Brien said.
At least two bills are pending in the US Congress to ban federal government officials from using TikTok on their phones, reflecting such a sentiment can gain momentum in the US after India’s decision.
“Would that be the same Chinese TikTok that was used to tank attendance at the Tulsa Rally?” tweeted Peter Navarro, assistant to the US President for trade and manufacturing policy, as he tagged a New York Times report on India’s ban.
Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham urged the US to do the same. “Leading the way. Where’s the US? India bans dozens of Chinese apps including TikTok,” she tweeted. Echoing a similar view, author Gordon Chang said, “Why can’t the US do the same?”