(This Jan. 15 story has been corrected to clarify that registration is allowed with a foreign phone number, and does not require users to have a Chinese phone number, in paragraph 11)

By Brenda Goh

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Users of 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 relations 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 become an unexpected bilateral channel for on the US-China exchange, with users exchanging photos and questions about pets, favorite foods. and their lives.

Not everyone was happy, however, with grumbling that their platform had been taken away and nationalist bloggers warning against American influences.

The surge of more than 700,000 new users is driven by the looming US ban on TikTok, which is used by 170 million Americans, over national security concerns.

Many Chinese users on Wednesday posted selfies and messages saying “welcome TikTok refugees”, and enthusiastically answered questions from US users on topics such as popular dishes in China, the city’s tourist sights and even China’s identity policies.

Among them is Jacob Hui, a translator in China’s eastern city of Hangzhou, who said he participated in a live chat co-hosted by Chinese and American influencers on the platform and raised questions — such as of which video games are popular in the US – so that new users.

“There weren’t many such opportunities to interact directly with Americans before,” he said.

Chinese state media have also cheered the trend, with state broadcaster CCTV saying that TikTok users have found a “new home”. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun, asked at a regular press briefing, said the use of social media was a “personal choice”.

“China always supports and encourages the strengthening of cultural exchanges and the development of 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.

While many Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo (NASDAQ: ) allow foreign phone numbers to register, they generally limit such users to international versions. 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 similar trends with mainland Chinese users joining swathes before being blocked by Beijing censors.

‘PROPAGANDIST FROM THE UNITED STATES’

RedNote’s newcomers have not been universally welcomed, however, with criticism from some Chinese users unhappy with how they have changed content on the platform and from some Chinese nationalist bloggers.

Ren Yi, the Harvard-educated grandson of a former Chinese Communist leader who runs a popular WeChat blog under the pen name “Chairman Rabbit”, warned his followers against not suspecting influence.

“The propagandists from the United States can easily achieve their goals by following a simple routine – first compliment you with a few words to make you ‘relax your guard’, and then bring of their own things to subtly influence you,” he said in an article first published Wednesday morning that was later removed.

Beijing-based independent industry analyst Liu Xingliang said he believes RedNote’s sudden popularity among TikTok users will not last long, although the current atmosphere is “very warm and happy”.

“American netizens are in a dissatisfied mood, and want to find another Chinese app to use is a catharsis of short-term emotions and a rebellious act. You can see that Xiaohongshu was also caught unprepared, the experience was not very good for foreigners,” he said.

There are also signs that some new foreign users are testing the limits of the platform’s censorship, with some posting on the social media network X that they cannot post about topics known to them. which is sensitive to China such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing two sources familiar with the company, that the platform is scrambling to find ways to moderate English-language content and create English-Chinese translation tools. .