U.S. Escalates Measures against China with New Sanctions against TikTok, WeChat and Senior Hong Kong Officials
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Key takeaways:
- President Trump issued two Executive Orders authorizing prohibitions on transactions by persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States with ByteDance Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., the developers of mobile phone applications TikTok and WeChat.
- The Executive Orders do not immediately impose restrictions but, rather, authorize prohibitions on transactions to be specified by the U.S. Commerce Department.
- The U.S. Treasury Department separately sanctioned 11 senior Hong Kong officials under Executive Order 13936, which action constitutes the first sanctions imposed under Hong Kong-related U.S. sanctions authorities.