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With Donald Trump’s imminent departure from the White House and Joe Biden set to take office, the incumbent US president is ramping up efforts to go to extremes to turn the US market into a minefield for Chinese software companies by signing an executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese applications on Tuesday, including the popular payment apps Ant Group’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay.

Calling the move as Trump’s “last frenzy” during his term of office, Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday that Trump is using every minute to maximize the pressure on Chinese technology companies, consistent with his attitude over the last four years. The order, which goes into effect in 45 days, tasks the Commerce Department with defining which transactions will be banned and implementing this order, according to the executive order published on the website of White House on Tuesday.

A US official said that the department plans to act before January 20 when Trump leaves office to identify prohibited transactions.

The functions of the eight Chinese apps range from payment, enterprise tools, to short video and messaging. The list includes Alipay, CamScanner, QQ Wallet, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate, WeChat Pay, and WPS Office. — Global Times