China backs companies' use of 'legal weapons' in US

China said Monday it supports Chinese companies using "legal weapons" in the United States to protect their "legitimate rights", amid tensions between Washington and Beijing over a range of issues including the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok.

"China supports relevant companies in taking legal weapons to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, and will continue to take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies," Zhao Lijian, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, told reporters at a regular news briefing in Beijing.

Zhao said US actions to rein in Chinese digital firms were a "denial of the market economy and fair competition principles that the US has always advocated."

US President Donald  Trump ordered earlier this month sweeping but vague bans on dealings with the Chinese owners of TikTok and the messaging app WeChat, saying they were a threat to US national security, foreign policy and the economy.

The twin executive orders - one for each app - are expected to take effect September 20, or 45 days from when they were issued.

It remains unclear what the TikTok orders mean for the app's 100 million US users, many of them teenagers or young adults who use it to post and watch short-form videos.

Some US-based users of WeChat are suing Trump in a bid to block the executive order that they say would effectively bar access in the US to the hugely popular Chinese messaging app.

In the lawsuit, they asked a federal court judge to stop the order from being enforced, claiming it would violate its US users' freedom of speech, free exercise of religion and other constitutional rights.