Trump WeChat ban 'an unwelcome signal' for Chinese community

So the decision last week by US President Donald Trump to order American firms to stop doing business with WeChat has sent shockwaves rippling out.

"WeChat has become the 'it' tool for Chinese-speaking people, no matter where you are around the world," one Shanghai resident told the BBC.

The billion-user app is primarily a social networking platform but can be used for a host of daily activities like shopping, gaming and even dating.

But WeChat has a less innocent side. It is seen a key instrument of China's internal surveillance apparatus.

In an executive order, President Trump labelled WeChat a threat to US national security and accused it of gathering "vast swaths" of user data, threatening Americans' personal and proprietary information.

WeChat's owner, TenCent, has been ordered to sell the app by mid-September or face a ban on US operations.

The move to block WeChat, a prominent example of China's tech innovation, is seen by many Chinese as an attack on their culture, its people and state. In response to President Trump, China's foreign ministry has accused America of using national security as a cover to exert hegemony.

The Chinese diaspora in the US has been shocked by the move, and many people are worried - not just about keeping in touch with loved ones, but what this means for China-US relations.