"Calling themselves 'TikTok refugees,' [American] users paid the 'cat tax' to join RedNote by posting cat photos and videos."

"They answered so many questions from their new Chinese friends: Is it true that in rural America every family has a large farm, a huge house, at least three children and several big dogs? That Americans have to work two jobs to support themselves? That Americans are terrible at geography and many believe that Africa is a country? That most Americans have two days off every week? Americans also posed questions to their new friends. 'I heard that every Chinese has a giant panda,'” an American RedNote user wrote. 'Can you tell me how can I get it?' An answer came from someone in the eastern province of Jiangsu: 'Believe me, it’s true,' the person deadpanned, posting a photo of a panda doing the laundry. I spent hours scrolling those so-called cat tax photos and chuckled at the cute and earnest responses. This is what the internet is supposed to do: connect people...."

From "TikTok, RedNote and the Crushed Promise of the Chinese Internet/China’s internet companies and their hard-working, resourceful professionals make world-class products, in spite of censorship and malign neglect by Beijing" (NYT).

"But the U.S. effort to ban TikTok highlights how hard it is for Chinese internet companies to expand overseas.... It’s well known that China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is no fan of the digital sector, unless it is being used to advance his agenda of national rejuvenation.... 'The real economy is the foundation of a nation’s economy and the source of its wealth,' he said in 2018. 'Economic development must never deviate from the real economy toward excessive reliance on the virtual economy.'... Chinese internet companies and investors are increasingly caught between their authoritarian government at home and suspicion, even hostility, abroad...."