The United States is taking its trade war with China a step further. After banning several Chinese companies and forcing TikTok to sell its business to an American company, it is now issuing notices to companies that have ties with China-based Tencent Holdings.
As per the report from Bloomberg, the U.S. Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) has asked gaming companies including Riot Games and Epic Games, to provide information on security protocols.
CFIUS investigates foreign acquisitions of American businesses for national security risks. It has the authority to examine full acquisitions as well as non-controlling investments and provide recommendations to block or unwind deals.
This new development is likely because of the company’s deep ties with Tencent Holdings. Riot Games, which has developed Valorant and League of Legends, is a fully-owned subsidiary of Tencent while the Chinese giant holds about 40 percent take in Epic Games.
EDITOR’S PICK: Huawei may have some hope as AMD gets a license to sell products to companies in the Entity List
Recently, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order which prohibits transactions with the popular instant messaging app WeChat and social platform TikTok. The ban is set to take effect 45 days from the date of order (7th August).
Epic Games has been in the news for a couple of weeks after it sued Apple and Google for removing its game Fortnite from the App Store and Play Store. It all began after the gaming firm introduced its own in-app payments system on Fortnite which skirted the 30 percent fee that Apple charges for each transaction.
UP NEXT: Apple confirmed to open its online store in India on September 23rd
