WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The chair and top

Democrat on a U.S. House of Representatives committee on China

told the CEOs of Google-parent Alphabet and Apple ( AAPL )

on Friday they must be ready to remove TikTok from

their U.S. app stores on Jan. 19.

Last week, a U.S. federal appeals court upheld a law

requiring China-based ByteDance to divest TikTok in the United

States or face a ban. Representative John Moolenaar, a

Republican and chair of the committee, and the top Democrat on

the committee, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, separately

urged TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to sell the short-video app used

by 170 million Americans.

"Congress has acted decisively to defend the national

security of the United States and protect TikTok's American

users from the Chinese Communist Party. We urge TikTok to

immediately execute a qualified divestiture," the lawmakers

wrote.

Apple ( AAPL ), Alphabet and TikTok did not immediately comment. On

Monday, ByteDance and TikTok made an emergency bid to

temporarily block the law pending a review by the U.S. Supreme

Court.

The DOJ said on Wednesday if the ban takes effect on Jan.

19, it would "not directly prohibit the continued use of TikTok"

by Apple ( AAPL ) or Google users who have already downloaded TikTok. But

it conceded the prohibitions on providing support "will

eventually be to render the application unworkable."

TikTok said in response on Thursday the law, absent a court

order, means TikTok will disappear from mobile app stores on

Jan. 19 and "be unavailable to the half of the country that does

not already use the app." It warned ending support services will

"cripple the platform in the United States and make it totally

unusable."

ByteDance and TikTok noted President-elect Donald Trump has

vowed to prevent a ban on TikTok.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley said in an interview he hopes

ByteDance will sell TikTok because the law leaves no wiggle

room. "The statute is what the statute is," Hawley said. "The

main issue is it's subject to Chinese oversight, Beijing

oversight - that's the problem."