The US government was tipped to widen a crackdown on Chinese companies deemed a security threat, with officials discussing prohibiting domestic investors from trading shares of Alibaba and Tencent, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.

Sources told the newspaper the US state, defence and treasury departments discussed the impact adding the companies to a list of barred companies would have on markets.

WSJ stated Tencent and Alibaba are China’s most valuable listed companies.

The move to expand the list of companies the US Department of Defence claims are owned or controlled by the Chinese military comes as tensions between the nations rise in the final days of President Donald Trump’s term.

Yesterday (6 January) the New York Stock Exchange revealed it would go ahead with a plan to delist China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.

On 5 January the president issued another order banning transactions with eight apps including Alipay, WeChat Pay and Tencent’s mobile wallet.