U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced last week the launch of five new lines of effort under the so-called "Clean Network" program to "protect America's critical telecommunications and technology infrastructure," going a step further in suppressing Chinese tech companies. According to the five lines, Washington will seek to remove "untrusted" Chinese apps such as TikTok and WeChat from U.S. mobile app stores, limit the ability of Chinese cloud service providers like Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent to access cloud-based systems in the country, and ensure undersea cables "are not subverted for intelligence gathering" by China. China has denounced the U.S. suppression and containment of Chinese high-tech firms by abusing state power. "Pompeo and his likes have time and again abused state power to bring down Chinese high-tech companies under the pretext of national security, which China firmly opposes," said China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.
