The US threatened to expand its action against Chinese tech companies it accuses of having direct links with the nation’s government, though this time it is mobile apps rather than equipment vendors in the frame.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News TikTok, WeChat and “countless more” apps acted as a gateway for citizens’ information to China, with President Trump calling time by preparing plans to address “a broad array of national security risks”.

Pompeo also took a swing at testimony given by Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Jeff Bezos in a high-profile Congressional hearing last week, telling Fox News claims they knew nothing of the theft of US IP was “crazy talk”.

Despite the hearing being widely reported to have been split down party lines, the secretary of state claimed Congress was coming around to the administration’s stance on China.

President Trump reportedly halted a plan to ban TikTok after talks with Microsoft chief Satya Nadella about a potential acquisition of the app’s operations in several countries.

The app came under the spotlight in the US over accusations it fed user data to the Chinese government, resulting in calls for it to split from parent ByteDance.

TikTok has repeatedly denied the claims.