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China Launches Sanctions Regime after US Moves on TikTok, WeChat

A logo of Chinese tech firm Tencent, owner of messaging app WeChat, is pictured in Beijing, China August 7, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
A logo of Chinese tech firm Tencent, owner of messaging app WeChat, is pictured in Beijing, China August 7, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
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China Launches Sanctions Regime after US Moves on TikTok, WeChat

A logo of Chinese tech firm Tencent, owner of messaging app WeChat, is pictured in Beijing, China August 7, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
A logo of Chinese tech firm Tencent, owner of messaging app WeChat, is pictured in Beijing, China August 7, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

China on Saturday launched a mechanism that would allow it to sanction foreign companies, upping the ante in a tech war with the United States a day after Washington moved to curb popular Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat.

China's long-expected "unreliable entities list" is seen as a weapon for Beijing to retaliate against the United States, which has used its own "entity list" to shut Chinese telecom giant Huawei out of the US market, while also moving against TikTok and WeChat.

Its implementation comes just a day after the US Commerce Department stepped up the pressure by ordering a ban on downloads of video app TikTok and effectively blocking use of WeChat, the Chinese super-app.

An announcement by China's Ministry of Commerce did not mention any specific foreign entities that could be targeted.

But it said the new system would consider sanctions on entities whose activities "harm China's national sovereignty, security, and development interests" or violate "internationally accepted economic and trade rules".

That language closely tracks wording that Beijing has used to repeatedly denounce US actions against Chinese companies.

Punitive measures may include fines against the foreign entity, banning it from conducting trade and investment in China, and restrictions on the entry of personnel or equipment into the country, AFP reported.

It covers "foreign enterprises, other organizations and individuals", the ministry said.

Under Friday's US order against the Chinese apps, Tencent-owned WeChat would lose functionality in the United States from Sunday. TikTok users will be banned from installing updates but could keep accessing the service through November 12.

That timeframe potentially allows for a tie-up between TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, and a US company to safeguard data for the wildly popular app to allay Washington's security concerns.

With President Donald Trump facing a tough re-election campaign, US officials have described the measures as essential to safeguard national security from potential Chinese espionage through the platforms.

But in a response to the US steps, China's Commerce Ministry on Saturday condemned what it called US "bullying", saying it violated international trade norms and that there was no evidence of any security threat.

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World

Zelensky Fears New Yalta at Russia-China-US Summit

This handout photograph taken by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on October 27, 2026 shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky attending a meeting with journalists in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
This handout photograph taken by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on October 27, 2026 shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky attending a meeting with journalists in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
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Zelensky Fears New Yalta at Russia-China-US Summit

This handout photograph taken by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on October 27, 2026 shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky attending a meeting with journalists in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
This handout photograph taken by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on October 27, 2026 shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky attending a meeting with journalists in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in comments published Wednesday that an expected meeting between Russian, US and Chinese leaders could offer a platform to redistribute influence, similar to what happened after World War II.

"We really don't want this to turn into 'Yalta 2, 3, 4', with a redistribution of influence," he said, referring to the 1945 summit of Soviet, US and British leaders on dividing up the post-World War II map.

The Kremlin has indicated that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US and Chinese counterparts, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit next month is under preparation.

"What China, Russia, and the United States might discuss has not yet been clearly defined today," Zelensky said in comments to journalists.

Russia has for years been seeking a comprehensive agreement with Washington on Europe's security architecture, and in particular an end to NATO's expansion near Russia's borders.

It casts its full-scale invasion of Ukraine as countering a threat posed by NATO -- a position widely rejected in Kyiv and the West, which says the invasion is an imperialistic land-grab by Putin.

"Russia wants this meeting more than anyone," Zelensky said, warning against handing Moscow "another major diplomatic advantage".

His comments came as Russia and Ukraine are due to meet next month with US envoys in the United Arab Emirates in a bid to revive talks towards ending Europe's worst conflict since World War II.

No date has yet been set for the meeting, but Zelensky said Ukraine wanted it to take place before the potential three-way talks between the Russian, US and Chinese leaders.

Zelensky also urged the United States to increase its supplies of Patriot air defense missiles, crucial to intercepting Russian attacks.

Ukraine had been receiving 12 a month from the United States this year, but has "to shoot down 150 ballistic missiles a month," Zelensky said.

Kyiv is also seeking a joint agreement to halt attacks on energy infrastructure ahead of winter and a maritime ceasefire to help safeguard its grain exports.

But Russia has rejected the idea of partial pauses in fighting before a final peace agreement has been reached.

World

Reports: 10 Dead in Crash Between 2 Spanish Trains in Toledo Province

Two people sit below an information screen with a message stating that the high-speed train line between Madrid and Andalucia has been interrupted following the collision of two high-speed trains between the towns of Mora and Orgaz, at the Atocha train station in Madrid, Spain, October 28, 2026. (Reuters)
Two people sit below an information screen with a message stating that the high-speed train line between Madrid and Andalucia has been interrupted following the collision of two high-speed trains between the towns of Mora and Orgaz, at the Atocha train station in Madrid, Spain, October 28, 2026. (Reuters)
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Reports: 10 Dead in Crash Between 2 Spanish Trains in Toledo Province

Two people sit below an information screen with a message stating that the high-speed train line between Madrid and Andalucia has been interrupted following the collision of two high-speed trains between the towns of Mora and Orgaz, at the Atocha train station in Madrid, Spain, October 28, 2026. (Reuters)
Two people sit below an information screen with a message stating that the high-speed train line between Madrid and Andalucia has been interrupted following the collision of two high-speed trains between the towns of Mora and Orgaz, at the Atocha train station in Madrid, Spain, October 28, 2026. (Reuters)

Spain’s state-owned news agency and other local media say at least 10 people have died in a crash between two trains in central Spain.

Spain’s rail system operator ADIF said the crash occurred Wednesday morning in the province of Toledo. Rail service is suspended between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia.

TVE is reporting that the accident was between two high-speed trains heading in the same direction and that one ran into the tail of the other, knocking two of its cars off the track.

The mayor of the nearby town of Urda, Manuel Galán, told Spanish state broadcaster TVE that passengers had been injured and that civil protection authorities had asked his town hall to prepare a sports pavilion to attend to passengers.

The mayor of another nearby village, Jesús Pérez of Los Yébenes, told TVE that it appeared that the accident was "serious.”

The regional president of Castilla La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, wrote on X that he is on his way to the crash site.

In January, 45 people died in southern Spain when a train jumped the track and hit an oncoming train. The crash was the deadliest in Spain since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people. The January incident shook the confidence the European country has in its extensive high-speed rail network.

World

Palestinian Activist Khalil Returns to Columbia After US Detention

Algerian-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is pictured during an interview with AFP in New York on October 26, 2026. (AFP)
Algerian-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is pictured during an interview with AFP in New York on October 26, 2026. (AFP)
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Palestinian Activist Khalil Returns to Columbia After US Detention

Algerian-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is pictured during an interview with AFP in New York on October 26, 2026. (AFP)
Algerian-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is pictured during an interview with AFP in New York on October 26, 2026. (AFP)

Mahmoud Khalil, a figurehead of Gaza war protests in the United States, returned Tuesday to Columbia University for the first time since his 2025 arrest under President Donald Trump's crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists.

The 31-year-old told AFP his presence for an event on his new memoir, attended by around 100 people, was a "victory," as he accused Columbia of seeking "to erase me, to erase any Palestinian voices on campus."

He has slammed the Ivy League institution for its response to the 2024 student demonstrations, which included allowing New York police to clear protesters from its Manhattan campus in a heavy-handed operation.

Columbia said at the time the protests were a safety threat.

Khalil has also accused the university of failing to protect him from harassment ahead of his arrest by US immigration authorities and three-month detention without criminal charge, before his release in June 2025.

"Columbia could have been an example for how to have difficult conversations on campus, how to respond to such a protest, how to be aligned with human rights and with international law," Khalil told AFP in an interview.

"They chose the total opposite. They chose brutality. They chose repression," he said.

Some Jewish groups on social media had opposed Khalil's return. A spokesperson for Columbia said the college is "committed to rigorous debate, inquiry, and respectful dialogue across differing perspectives."

"Columbia supports the right of faculty members to organize academic events. An invitation to speak does not signify university endorsement of a speaker's views," they said in a statement carried by US media.