President Donald Trump signed an executive order through which transactions with eight Chinese companies are banned. Among the entities are Ant Group's Alipay, Tencent's QQ Wallet, and WeChat Pay. The order prohibits the transactions within 45 days.
The executive order states that "by accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, Chinese connected software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information." Moreover, the documents further show that the data collected "would permit China to track the locations of federal employees and contractors and build dossiers of personal information."
According to Reuters, this move is meant to curb the threat posed by Chinese software applications. On the other hand, the executive order is causing the Sino-US tensions to escalate even more just two weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
The news did not impact Tencent's stock price, as it closed 2.23% higher.
Sources: reuters.com, cnbc.com, finance.yahoo.com