The New York Times Quotes Clete Willems on Retaliatory Measures in US-China Trade Relations
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The New York Times has quoted Akin Gump public law and policy partner Clete Willems in the article “Trump’s Attacks on TikTok and WeChat Could Further Fracture the Internet.” The article reports on some of the trade tactics being adopted by President Trump toward Chinese companies, which seem to follow similar approaches taken by China toward U.S. tech companies.
According to the Times, Mr. Trump’s recent executive orders leading to a possible U.S. ban on two of the world’s most popular Chinese-made apps, TikTok and WeChat, indicate a new willingness to adopt some of China’s own exclusionary tactics. President Trump, the article says, has also ordered ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, to give up its American assets and any data that TikTok had gathered in the United States.
In Willems’ view, though, the executive orders were motivated by national security concerns, not by reciprocity.
“A lot of people have asked: ‘Should China be angry? Twitter is already banned. Google is already banned. How angry can China be?’ But we’re not just copying their playbook,” said Willems. “The administration is trying to respond to what it sees as a legitimate national security threat.”