Democrats and Republicans united in April 2024 to pass a bill to ban TikTok in the United States. The bill, signed into law by President Joseph Biden, enacts a further clampdown on the reach of Chinese technology in the U.S., stating that it is “protecting Americans from foreign adversary controlled applications.”
Though TikTok is headquartered in Singapore, a new China-based app soon after went viral in its place. With a sense of curiosity, irony, or perhaps plain spite, more than three million Americans created accounts on RedNote, a Chinese app likened to Instagram and known in China as Xiaohongshu. Prompted by the threatened termination of TikTok’s domestic services in January, these so-called “TikTok refugees” found themselves digital tourists suddenly immersed in Chinese internet culture.
These rare, unmediated exchanges between everyday Chinese and Americans appeared to reflect the simple pleasures inherent to internet culture—cute kids, cats, and comedy. “The Chinese are so sweet, and so welcoming…I’ve made Chinese friends [that] I want to come visit,” relays one American user in a widely-circulated clip. In granting Americans intimate access to Chinese people and culture across the chasm of U.S.-China geopolitics, RedNote’s window into Chinese life stands in stark contrast to the often menacing depictions of China in U.S. politics.
On President Donald Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order to delay the enforcement of the ban on TikTok to April 5 and give the app an opportunity to find an American owner. So though RedNote’s moment was likely fleeting, the kind of popular exchange it produced has precedent. There is a long history in which Americans and Chinese have sought to remake the relationship between the two nations by forging new relationships with one another through the exchange of books, films, and most importantly, people.
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