Trump says looking at pressuring other Chinese companies such as Alibaba after Bytedance

Trump says he could exert pressure on more Chinese companies. Could Alibaba be the next to face a ban in the US?

Trump made the remarks after issuing an executive order banning transactions with TikTok's Chinese parent Bytedance by mid-September (REUTERS)

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he could exert pressure on more Chinese companies such as technology giant Alibaba after he moved to ban TikTok.

Asked at a news conference whether there were other particular China-owned companies he was considering a ban on, such as Alibaba, Trump replied: "Well, we're looking at other things, yes."

Trump has been piling pressure on Chinese-owned companies, such as by vowing to ban short-video app TikTok from the United States. The United States ordered its Chinese owner ByteDance on Friday to divest the US operations of TikTok within 90 days, the latest effort to ramp up pressure over concerns about the safety of the personal data it handles.

Trump, who has made changing the US-China trade relationship a central theme of his presidency, has been sharply critical of China while also praising its purchases of agriculture products such as soybeans and corn as part of a trade agreement reached late last year.

Earlier, he said that any deal to sell Chinese-owned social media app TikTok to an American company must "substantially" benefit the United States and provide "total security."

Trump made the remarks after issuing an executive order banning transactions with TikTok's Chinese parent Bytedance by mid-September after appearing to bless a sale of the popular video-sharing app to Microsoft.