The arrival of American users on RedNote has brought instant online connection between Americans and Chinese even as academic and other exchanges have dampened.

RedNote has been thrust into the limelight after more than half a million TikTok users recently joined the platform in protest against a likely imminent ban on the short video app in the United States.

As the threat of a TikTok ban looms, some U.S. TikTok users are flocking to Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu – making it the top downloaded app in the U.S. The self-described “TikTok refugees” landed on Xiaohongshu as an