Chinese tech stocks fell across the board.
Technology and e-commerce China Concept H-shares plummeted today due to America's ban on WeChat's parent company Tencent (00700:HK).
President Trump announced on August 6 local US time that his government would prohibit any US individuals and companies from conducting any transactions with TikTok's parent company ByteDance, and any WeChat-related transactions with Tencent.
The United States has recently committed to taking repeated aggressive measures against Chinese Internet companies. Following Trump's mandatory TikTok divestiture, on August 5, the US Secretary of State claimed that he would launch a new 'clean network' initiative to remove some Chinese apps from app stores, especially Tencent, Alibaba (BABA:NASDAQ, 09988:HKEX) and Baidu (BIDU:NASDAQ).
Tencent, Alibaba, JD.com (09618:HKEX), Meituan-Dianping (03690:HKEX), NetEase (09999:HKEX) and SMIC (00981:HKEX) plunged as much as 10%, 5%, 3.07%, 1.27%, 0.73%, 9.01% respectively. Weimob (02013:HKEX), which has built its business on the WeChat platform, decreased by as much as 8.68%.
"Many Chinese companies currently unilaterally sanctioned by the United States are innocent. The US's actions are to maintain its high-tech monopoly position and seriously threaten the global industrial supply chain's security. This is a typical hegemonic act," said Wang Wenbin, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson.