An Australian parliamentary inquiry into foreign interference convened by China hawks has been told by WeChat that Beijing had never made such requests to snoop on Australian users or have access to private chat messages.

The written response by the China-based superapp marks its first comment to the panel, after it declined to send a representative in person on account of not having permanent staff in Australia.

"WeChat is a safe and secure platform, operated under Singapore laws, that enables private chat messages between users. Surveillance by any government would violate our stated policies," WeChat said.

The ongoing inquiry has received submissions from a range of sources, including academics who have called for an outright ban on China-linked WeChat and TikTok.

Other observers say a blanket ban would hurt Australia's democracy. The prominent Australian cryptographer Vanessa Teague highlighted in her submission that platforms in Western liberal democracies had been found culpable of invading users' privacy.