WeChat Photo:VCG

Many Chinese people said they can give up using iPhones if the US blocks WeChat, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told the press on Thursday, when commenting on a recent survey.

So-called national security is just a synonym for the double standards of some US politicians, Zhao said.

According to a recent survey by the American Chamber in Shanghai, nearly 90 percent of the surveyed enterprises said the US government's ban on WeChat will have a negative impact on their business operations. More than one-third of the surveyed enterprises said the ban may result in declines in their global revenue.

 "Under the guise of national security, they [some US politicians] have abused state power and suppressed non-US firms unreasonably. Such behavior amounts to piracy and has already resulted in harm to the rights and interests of international consumers and enterprises, including those in the US, and that will inevitably be opposed and resisted by the international community," he added. 

An August survey on Chinese Twitter-like Weibo echoed Zhao: 95 percent of the 1.2 million respondents said they would choose to use Android smartphones if WeChat is disabled on iPhones. 

As a result, US President Donald Trump's bullying of Chinese tech company Tencent might end up striking a much heavier blow to Apple with the potential loss of the vast majority of its Chinese users, who generate up to 20 percent of the company's global sales, while at the same time boosting the sales of other mobile brands, such as Huawei, that Trump has always wanted to crush.