China accuses other countries of ‘bullying’ its tech firms
China has pointed the finger at “individual countries” that it says are “bullying” others and “hunting” its tech companies, as tensions between Beijing and Washington continue to mount.
It announced an initiative to establish global standards on data security today, in a similar strategy to the Trump administration’s Clean Network.
The plan asks technology firms to prevent large-scale surveillance and illegal data collection through so-called backdoors.
It also calls for participants to respect the sovereignty, jurisdiction and data management rights of other countries.
The US has taken steps in recent months to ban American companies from working with Chinese businesses in certain areas, with the likes of Huawei, Tiktok and Wechat taking the brunt of it.
“Global data security rules that reflect the wishes of all countries and respect the interests of all parties should be reached on the basis of universal participation by all parties,” said China’s state councillor Wang Yi.
“Some individual countries are aggressively pursuing unilateralism, throwing dirty water on other countries under the pretext of ‘cleanliness’, and conducting global hunts on leading companies of other countries under the pretext of security. This is naked bullying and should be opposed and rejected.”
Tiktok is currently being forced to pursue a partial sale of its operations in the US, after US President Donald Trump gave the company 45 days to secure a deal or leave the country. He later extended that deadline to 90 days, which will expire on 12 November.
Meanwhile Huawei is facing heat in a number of countries, including the UK where the government has ordered the removal of all Huawei equipment from its telecoms network by the end of 2027.