US secretary of state Mike Pompeo on Wednesday (1) applauded India's sweeping ban on Chinese apps including TikTok, saying New Delhi was ensuring its own security.
"We welcome India's ban on certain mobile apps that can serve as appendages of the CCP surveillance state," Pompeo said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
"India's clean app approach will boost India's sovereignty and will also boost India's integrity and national security, as the Indian government cell itself has stated," he said.
India had been the top international market for TikTok, the blockbuster Chinese app popular with young people that lets users upload and share short videos.
Prime minister Narendra Modi's government on Monday banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, WeChat and Weibo as relations deteriorate in the wake of a brutal border clash.
India's ministry of information technology said the apps "are engaged in activities... prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order."
The head of TikTok India denied charges that the company shared any information from its users with a foreign government, including China.
Pompeo has been on a campaign, with limited success, to dissuade other nations from embracing Chinese telecom giant Huawei, a leader in fifth-generation internet technology.
