Agree with this! I get most of content and inspiration from WeChat public accounts I follow.
Even most content which is censored starts off in WeChat. And then sites like CDT helpfully archive it for China nerds like me! (Which also helps find new WeChat accounts).
"A foreign correspondent in China who isn’t on WeChat would be like a political reporter not using Twitter"
Many political reporters probably could have benefitted from not using twitter.
"I often gauge a Chinese acquaintance’s international engagement by how much they use email"
This sounds like a rather unreliable metric.
Overall I agree that everything else being equal it's better to be on WeChat, but there are almost certainly specific topics where WeChat's usefulness may be limited (there is also a lot of baseless gossip and nonsense), and certain researchers/commentators whose analytical abilities mean that their output is valuable regardless of WeChat usage.
A MAGA YouTuber lived in China for 6 months then came back to tell his 250k viewers that China has zero free speech, zero free religion, and because of that Chinese are suffering under CCP oppression. Even 宣传部门 would blush at how over the top his message is.
Peter Navarro dubbed himself a China expert 10 years ago, then aggressively defended his lack of Mandarin and physical visits to China.
Then there was that Spaniard who tried to argue and whitesplain to a Uyghur about the dystopian hellscape that is his home province, before saying something racist about his English and abruptly hanging up
I'd say misinformation about China, especially after liberation day, is now more viral than COVID
This even needs to be said?
apparently...
That's exactly what I thought! But apparently it needs to be said. ...
Agree with this! I get most of content and inspiration from WeChat public accounts I follow.
Even most content which is censored starts off in WeChat. And then sites like CDT helpfully archive it for China nerds like me! (Which also helps find new WeChat accounts).
I want to be on WeChat, but I don't know anyone that can get me in
"A foreign correspondent in China who isn’t on WeChat would be like a political reporter not using Twitter"
Many political reporters probably could have benefitted from not using twitter.
"I often gauge a Chinese acquaintance’s international engagement by how much they use email"
This sounds like a rather unreliable metric.
Overall I agree that everything else being equal it's better to be on WeChat, but there are almost certainly specific topics where WeChat's usefulness may be limited (there is also a lot of baseless gossip and nonsense), and certain researchers/commentators whose analytical abilities mean that their output is valuable regardless of WeChat usage.
Is this in response to anyone in particular? I mean, has any "China expert" under 60 openly stated they refuse to have a WeChat account?
Fascinating thank you !
Honestly kind of shocked to learn there are China Watchers NOT using WeChat - how do they even collect information at this point???
A MAGA YouTuber lived in China for 6 months then came back to tell his 250k viewers that China has zero free speech, zero free religion, and because of that Chinese are suffering under CCP oppression. Even 宣传部门 would blush at how over the top his message is.
Peter Navarro dubbed himself a China expert 10 years ago, then aggressively defended his lack of Mandarin and physical visits to China.
Then there was that Spaniard who tried to argue and whitesplain to a Uyghur about the dystopian hellscape that is his home province, before saying something racist about his English and abruptly hanging up
I'd say misinformation about China, especially after liberation day, is now more viral than COVID