President Biden on Wednesday rescinded former President Donald Trump's actions targeting Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat.

Biden Drops Trump's Ban on TikTok And WeChat — But Will Continue The Scrutiny

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2021-06-10 00:30:04

President Biden on Wednesday rescinded former President Donald Trump's actions targeting Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat. Kiichiro Sato/AP hide caption

President Biden on Wednesday rescinded former President Donald Trump's actions targeting Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat.

Former President Donald Trump's TikTok and WeChat bans were officially dropped on Wednesday, but scrutiny of the China-owned apps will continue under the Biden administration.

To replace the Trump-era actions, President Biden signed new orders calling for the Commerce Department to launch national security reviews of apps with links to foreign adversaries, including China.

The move represents a reset in relations between Washington and TikTok, the hit video-sharing app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, and WeChat, the popular messaging app run by Shenzhen-based Tencent. But the apps are "not out of the woods yet," said James Lewis, who heads technology policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and has been in discussions with White House officials in both administrations about the future of the apps.