Jack Ma is again carrying “bad luck”: Mr. Trump signed a ban on transactions with eight Chinese payment applications

President Donald Trump has signed a 45-day ban on transactions with eight Chinese online payment platforms (including Ant Group’s Alipay).

This decree is seen as the last attempt by the Trump administration – who is about to leave the White House – to use national security reasons to attack Chinese technology companies. However, whether this decree is enforced or not is up to President-elect Joe Biden.

According to the decree, the US Department of Commerce is tasked with drafting a bill outlining which payment applications will be banned. QQ Wallet (from Tencent), WeChat pay, as well as CamScanner, SHAREit, Vmate, and WPS Office applications were all affected.

It is likely that the ordinance will face legal challenges such as the attempt to force ByteDance to sell TikTok or ban WeChat’s messaging app. However, Mr. Biden can suspend or even remove the decree after taking office.

This is the latest “blow” to Jack Ma – the founder of Ant Group has not appeared in public since Ant’s IPO was delayed and Alibaba was under antitrust investigation.

Apps like WeChat Pay and Alipay both have mainland users, and the number of users in the US is quite small. However, Trump’s decree could disrupt the international trading system because these apps are a common method of communication between Chinese and international traders.

The Trump administration believes the move will help stop China from collecting user data. However, they do not specifically point out the tricks of stealing data through these applications, but the argument is mainly based on the size of the applications.