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January 15, 2025 | 10:31 pm
TEMPO.CO, Shanghai - Users of the Chinese social media app RedNote welcomed "TikTok refugees" from the United States with selfies and messages on Wednesday, as Beijing said it encouraged stronger cultural ties with other countries in response to the sudden influx.
Known in China as Xiaohongshu and as a platform to find lifestyle recommendations in areas from beauty to food, the app has in recent days been transformed into an unexpected bilateral channel for U.S.-China exchanges, with users swapping photos and questions about pets, favorite foods, and their lives.
Not everyone was happy, though, with some grumbling that their platform was being taken over and nationalist bloggers warning against American influences.
The influx of more than 700,000 new users has been driven by a looming U.S. ban on TikTok, used by 170 million Americans, on national security concerns.
Many Chinese users on Wednesday posted selfies and messages saying "welcome TikTok refugees", and responded eagerly to questions from U.S. users on topics such as popular Chinese dishes, city tourist sights, and even China's birth policies.
Among them was Jacob Hui, a translator in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, who said he joined a live chat co-hosted by Chinese and American influencers on the platform and posed questions - such as what video games were popular in the U.S. - to the new users.
"There were not many such opportunities to directly interact with Americans in the past," he said.
Chinese state media has also cheered the trend, with state broadcaster CCTV saying that the TikTok users had found a "new home". Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, asked at a regular press briefing, said the use of social media was a "personal choice".
"China has always supported and encouraged strengthening cultural exchanges and promoting mutual understanding among the peoples of all countries," Guo said.
China has for years tightly controlled cyberspace through its "Great Firewall" censorship architecture and blocked foreign social media networks such as Instagram and X.
In turn, most Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo require users to have a Chinese phone number to log on, limiting users to mainly Chinese residents. ByteDance restricts TikTok to foreign users and runs a separate version for mainland Chinese residents called Douyin.
RedNote, in contrast, does not require users to have such a number and maintains only one version of its app. The company did not respond to Reuters' request for comment on Wednesday.
In the past, other Western social media platforms, such as Clubhouse, have enjoyed a similar trend of Chinese mainland users joining in swathes before being blocked by Beijing's censors.
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