Canada WeChat ban ‘overstretches concept of national security’, says China
A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that the Canadian government has ‘overstretched’ the concept of national security and is ‘abusing state power’ by banning the use of the WeChat app on government-issued mobile devices.
On 30 October, Canada’s President of the Treasury Board, Anita Anand, said that with immediate effect, ‘The WeChat and Kaspersky suite of applications will be removed from government-issued mobile devices. Users of these devices will also be blocked from downloading the applications in the future.’
She said that the Chief Information Officer of Canada had determined that WeChat and Kaspersky suite of applications ‘present an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security,’ adding, ‘On a mobile device, the WeChat and Kaspersky applications data collection methods provide considerable access to the device’s contents. The decision to remove and block the WeChat and the Kaspersky applications was made to ensure that Government of Canada networks and data remain secure and protected and are in line with the approach of our international partners. While the risks of using these applications are clear, we have no evidence that government information has been compromised.’
In response to reporters’ questions on the ban, Chinese government spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, ‘WeChat is a social media platform run by a private company. The Chinese government keeps asking our companies to strictly abide by local laws and regulations in doing business overseas. The Canadian government, without providing any hard evidence, issued the ban against a Chinese company in the name of protecting data security…We hope Canada will abandon ideological bias, uphold the principles of market economy, and provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese companies.’
