For the days of social media, Chinese American activists embraced the email chain to mobilize their community for a cause. Chinese-language schools and alumni associations served as their networks.
Then WeChat, a social media app developed by Chinese company Tencent and released in 2011, made things a lot easier.
Share Facebook, share Twitter, share WhatsApp, WeChat caught the eye of conservative Chinese Americans, many of them first-generation immigrants.
They used it not only to chat about issues they saw as discriminatory, but also as a lifeline to communicate with family and friends in China.
Last week, President Donald Trump put all that in jeopardy when he issued an executive order banning U.S. use of WeChat, effective next month, over concerns about national security.
One WeChat user, a U.S. citizen from China, said such a ban would end the way she and others communicate with family in China. She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fear of revenge.
“It’s quite a shock to think that I can not share photos pretty soon, call my family because there is no other social media,” she said. “Facebook is banned in China. … We might go back to the old phone cards. ”
George Shen, another U.S. citizen who emigrated from China nearly 30 years ago, said he supported Trump’s WeChat ban, even though it would make contact with family in China more difficult.
Last year, Shen went so far as to circulate a petition on social media – including WeChat – asking for a ban on the platform. He cited censorship in the hands of the Chinese government as a major reason.
“Why do I have to follow the rules in China?” Shen said, adding that his WeChat account has been temporarily suspended for sharing content that was allegedly misused by the Chinese government.
Trump’s movement could also stray a lively conduit of conservative talk among Chinese Americans – one that was used to mobilize support to help him and other Republicans win elections.
Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder and CEO of AAPI Data and a professor of public policy at the University of California, Riverside, said that although 2016 was a big year for Chinese American conservatives, especially in organizing through WeChat for efforts such as Chinese Americans for Trump, some of that support has since declined.
Outside of politics, WeChat has made life easier for many of its more than 1 billion users, most of them Chinese speakers. The app can be used to buy groceries, pay bills and help Chinese overseas stay connected with relatives in China. It is also where many Chinese speakers get their news.
WeChat observers say conservative Chinese organizers are preparing to explore new media to spread their message, even if all are not on board with Trump to be re-elected.
“I would predict that if – it is a big if – WeChat is actually banned, the activist community will find solutions,” Ramakrishnan said.
Conservative Chinese American activists are among those who have used WeChat to massively expel members of their community for demonstrations on issues such as ending affirmative action in schools and banning data sharing, the process of breaking down data by ethnic group .
But the political landscape on the platform has shifted since the last presidential election, according to WeChat observers.
Ramakrishnan said that modern and progressive voices are talking about it, especially through microblogs that are being shared and about public accounts.
As far as conservative organization on WeChat is concerned, these days is far less central to Trump than on issues such as affirmative action, criminal justice reform, according to Zhang Chi, a former fellow at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, who 2018 wrote study examining misinformation and political polarization on WeChat.
However, Zhang predicted that a WeChat ban would not significantly affect conservative organizing efforts. She said users are already preparing to move to other platforms including Telegram, WhatsApp and LINE, as well as web forums like Wenxuecity.
“It will be more patchwork than the integrated infrastructure that WeChat provides, but the membership and the momentum are already in place,” Zhang said in an email.
Whether that translates into support for Trump in 2020 remains to be seen.
Zhang said that although Trump’s Chinese base is still on WeChat, she believes it is in a “bad state.” Ramakrishnan said Trump’s anti-China rhetoric has complicated a conversation in spaces like WeChat.
“I would imagine he has fewer supporters in WeChat world, as people say, then in the past,” Ramakrishnan said.
