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

Trump, when 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 Beijing as far as the handling of the coronavirus pandemic is concerned.

According to Trump, China did not take the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan last year seriously, leading to the global tragedy -- the pandemic. China vehemently denies the charges.

Since then, Trump's rhetoric has been to ban everything Chinese.

Source: Reuters