Beijing (PingWest)—US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement on Wednesday, announcing that the Trump Administration will launch a Clean Network program aimed at curbing potential national risks brought by Chinese technology companies.

“With parent companies based in China, apps like TikTok and WeChat and others, are significant threats to personal data of American citizens,” Pompeo said during a press briefing.

According to the Secretary of State, the five-pronged “Clean Network” effort involves critical areas in telecommunications and technology infrastructure, namely, clean carrier, clean stores, clean apps, clean clouds, and clean cables.

In the statement, Pompeo emphasized that information about intellectual property and citizens' personal privacy should be prevented from being stored on cloud services provided by Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu.

He urged Google and Apple to remove untrusted Chinese apps in the US and warned that suspicious Chinese carriers are not allowed to provide international telecommunications services to and from the country.

Also, the senior official declared that the US will work with foreign partners to ensure that undersea cables around the world are not affected by Chinese intelligence agencies.

As part of the latest initiative, Pompeo said his department was also seeking to prevent US apps from being preinstalled or made available for download on mobile devices manufactured by Huawei and “other untrusted vendors”.

Last month, Pompeo said the U.S. was looking at banning TikTok as well as other Chinese social media apps, citing national security concerns.