Photo taken on Feb. 13, 2019 shows the Tiktok app icon (upper right corner) on a smartphone screen. (Xinhua/Shi Zhongyu)

China's Foreign Ministry said certain politicians in the US should give up their prejudice against Chinese companies in response to US President Donald Trump's comments over a potential ban of popular short video app TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance Ltd.

Trump said his administration is considering banning TikTok in the US as one possible way to retaliate against China over its handling of the coronavirus, the Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

Without offering specifics about a potential decision, Trump reportedly said, "It's a big business."

Trump's comments came one day after US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo floated the idea.

Addressing a question about the TikTok ban, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a press conference on Wednesday that the comments by certain politicians in the US are completely groundless and are malicious smearing.

The Chinese government has always requested Chinese companies to operate a legal, compliant business in overseas markets, Zhao added.

"Following the logic of some in the US, if big can be an issue, then should the huge user bases of US social media apps constitute a huge security risk for other countries?" Zhao said.

Zhao urged some US politicians should give up their prejudice against China, stop cracking down on Chinese companies with state apparatus, and contribute to China-US trade and economic cooperation. 

TikTok is popular in the US, especially among young Americans. About 60 percent of TikTok's 26.5 million monthly active users in the US are between the ages of 16 and 24, according to the company's data in 2019.