On Aug 6th 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order to effectively ban WeChat in 45 days (which is Sep 20th 2020) after the date of the order.

Based on a Tencent spokesperson, “We are reviewing the executive order to get a full understanding”.

After the announcement, Shares of WeChat’s owner, China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd., fell as much as 10% in morning trading and sliced almost $70 billion from its market value.

WeChat is a Chinese multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018, with over 1 billion monthly active users. Wechat is the most popular mobile messaging apps in China.

Even Wechat has limited users in the U.S., it plays an important role for both Chinese and U.S. users’ daily communication. Banning the app would give those who use it with no other option to quickly communicate for free with friends and family in China. It’s impossible for users to just switch over to U.S.-based messaging platforms, for example WhatApp and Facebook Messenger, because China has already blocked these apps. Users in China can download and access these U.S. based apps through a virtual private network, but the connect is unstable.

In terms of economic effects, banning WeChat in the U.S. could have far greater implications to cross-border business between Chinese and American companies, impacting everything from the manufacturing of medical face masks and Apple iPhones to the inking contracts of lawyers and bankers.