Shenzhen, 28 February 2023 (dpa/MIA) - China has accused the US of suppressing foreign companies, following the imposition of a ban on the use of Chinese social media app Tiktok on government mobile phones.

"The US government should seriously respect the principles of market economy and fair competition," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in Beijing on Tuesday.

Washington must "end the unjustified suppression of relevant enterprises and create an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for enterprises from all over the world," Mao added. 

US President Joe Biden's administration had previously announced that government agencies have 30 days to ensure that the video app is no longer used on service phones and other devices.

In Canada, the ban has also been in place since Tuesday.

Employees of the European Commission will also no longer be allowed to use Tiktok on official mobile phones, also due to security concerns.

The commission demanded last week that the video-sharing app, which belongs to the Chinese ByteDance group, be removed by March 15 from private devices that use commission apps.

TikTok has long been accused of insufficient data security and a lack of protection for young users. It is feared, for example, that the Chinese state has access to troves of TikTok user data. TikTok rejects this.