Chinese Soft Power and Media Discussion and Updates

coolgod

coolgod

Colonel
Registered Member
daifo said:
The sinicized foreigner knows that a large element of Americans/Anglos can't have nice things, they will eventually ruin it. Like how Japan and Thailand is being ruined by sexpats, vandals, johnny somali... The American Asians who lived thru hellish USA see the threat of western colonization of XHS and are upset of their safespace being invaded , while the local Chinese are oblivious and have only been shown the nice Hollywood dream side of it (i blame the ccp on this part). Like the US has been anti-chinese for over 150 years and is looking to imo hopefully destroyed China now while i doubt this is correctly taught to the Chinese.
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I think we should keep an open mind. Since beginning of Chinese history, foreigners have always come to China to learn about its culture, this time is no different. Besides, how is China going to lead the whole world if it maintains an overly suspicious attitude?
 
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Temstar

Temstar

Brigadier
Registered Member
At this time there is no win possible for the US on this XHS/TikTok issue. I would have predicted that come the 19th neither party nor Biden nor Trump would want to stick their neck out, but also US is not really capable of carrying out this ban. So if TikTok just carries on operating and pretend there is no ban they would just also pretend to not see and swipe this under the rug.

However TikTok is more ballsy than that and have gone all in:
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Without a clear signal from Biden TikTok will flip the power switch on the 19th, so the play it down option is no longer open. We can game out the possible outcomes:

1. TikTok shuts down on the 19th. Trump managed to make a deal and basically compromises and app comes back up on the 20th without selling
Result: TikTok now knows its threat to shutdown is powerful enough to make US government fold. It will never submit to be bought in the future. Some of the refugees on XHS say goodbye and return to TikTok. Major embarrassment for the US government because they just blinked in this cyber version of Cuban Missile Crisis.

2. TikTok shuts down on the 19th. Trump does not manage to make a deal to restore TikTok on the 20th or there after. Mass exodus to XHS.
Result: Major embarrassment for US government and their Oligarchy friends because they did not manage to get the algo as planned. The world realizes Chinese companies when supported by CPC are hardcore and do not fold in negotiations even with billions of dollars at stake in a "it's not about the money its about sending a message" way. Confidence in Chinese overseas company increase. Masses of Americans further redpilled on XHS

3. TikTok shuts down on the 19th and soon after XHS is banned too
Result: Major embarrassment for US government as everyone will realize free speech is meaningless with US around. "Rule based order" becomes a joke and non-valid geopolitical argument. American users would further flee to a range of different platforms with unpredictable result.

It's lose-lose-lose, amazing US government managed to get itself into this situation. We've already gained this gem from the situation:
Screenshot 2025-01-18 203655.png
VOA openly declaring "national security above free speech", therefore validating the decision by China to build the GFW all those years ago. From today if you run into any Chinese shitlib who wants to argue free speech throw the above screenshot at them.
 
coolgod

coolgod

Colonel
Registered Member
Temstar said:
At this time there is no win possible for the US on this XHS/TikTok issue. I would have predicted that come the 19th neither party nor Biden nor Trump would want to stick their neck out, but also US is not really capable of carrying out this ban. So if TikTok just carries on operating and pretend there is no ban they would just also pretend to not see and swipe this under the rug.

However TikTok is more ballsy than that and have gone all in:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
Without a clear signal from Biden TikTok will flip the power switch on the 19th, so the play it down option is no longer open. We can game out the possible outcomes:

1. TikTok shuts down on the 19th. Trump managed to make a deal and basically compromises and app comes back up on the 20th without selling
Result: TikTok now knows its threat to shutdown is powerful enough to make US government fold. It will never submit to be bought in the future. Some of the refugees on XHS say goodbye and return to TikTok. Major embarrassment for the US government because they just blinked in this cyber version of Cuban Missile Crisis.

2. TikTok shuts down on the 19th. Trump does not manage to make a deal to restore TikTok on the 20th or there after. Mass exodus to XHS.
Result: Major embarrassment for US government and their Oligarchy friends because they did not manage to get the algo as planned. The world realizes Chinese companies when supported by CPC are hardcore and do not fold in negotiations even with billions of dollars at stake in a "it's not about the money its about sending a message" way. Confidence in Chinese overseas company increase. Masses of Americans further redpilled on XHS

3. TikTok shuts down on the 19th and soon after XHS is banned too
Result: Major embarrassment for US government as everyone will realize free speech is meaningless with US around. "Rule based order" becomes a joke and non-valid geopolitical argument. American users would further flee to a range of different platforms with unpredictable result.

It's lose-lose-lose, amazing US government managed to get itself into this situation. We've already gained this gem from the situation:
View attachment 143844
VOA openly declaring "national security above free speech", therefore validating the decision by China to build the GFW all those years ago. From today if you run into any Chinese shitlib who wants to argue free speech throw the above screenshot at them.
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I think scenario 1 is most likely. I don't see how your scenario 3 would work. How can US government even ban Xiaohongshu, you mean like remove it from the US Apple app store? Apple would be dragged into a huge mess which might lead people to not buy Apple phones. The US could always sanction XHS, but that would just look even worse.
 
B

BlackWindMnt

Captain
Registered Member
coolgod said:
I think we should keep an open mind. Since beginning of China, foreigners have always come to China to learn about its culture, this time is no different. Besides, how is China going to lead the whole world if it maintains an overly suspicious attitude?
Click to expand...
I expect that xhs will make it clear it's a life style app and not a western political shit throwing app like X. Over time those political commentary accounts will move back to X or tiktok. The people that are interested in China will just continue to use both social media networks.

I think the traffic will also die down once the big "influencer" accounts discover they can't make as much money on xhs. This is where tiktok US can win back a lot of people by offering better payouts to those influencers. Expect to happen around the summer when all the novelty is over.
 
Temstar

Temstar

Brigadier
Registered Member
coolgod said:
I think scenario 1 is most likely. I don't see how your scenario 3 would work. How can US government even ban Xiaohongshu, you mean like remove it from the US Apple app store? Apple would be dragged into a huge mess which might lead people to not buy Apple phones. The US could always sanction XHS, but that would just look even worse.
Click to expand...
Yes I was thinking remove from app store. I realize there are ways to sideload apps (trivial even for Android) but I'm not sure if general public is willing to go that far.

I realize banning apps from app store is a huge thing in of itself and can lead to things like Harmony OS gaining tracking, but at this point I wouldn't rule out US doing such dropping rock on ones own feet type move.
 
Temstar

Temstar

Brigadier
Registered Member
vincent said:
You can sort of tell by his decision to buy a Tesla instead of a domestic brand
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Ayi I think is someone who's very big on governments playing their hand perfectly, and if you don't have enough information to make a perfect play he reckons you should just pass and not make a move. You can tell this from his reaction to Russian government kicking off the war in 2022 with 200k available troops and again during the Kupyansk Counteroffensive when it was realized Putin let troops who finished their contracts go home without a further mobilisation. He gets very upset when government gamble on a "empty castle" strategy and get their bluff called.

So to him currently China is not yet ready to make a soft power move because there are still too many libs in the party and in society. You see him complain about this all the time. He probably envisions in a future were they have been purged or aged out of position of power is when China would start making moves, hence his comment that this time that the guest is early and the house isn't clean yet.

CPC however has always been willing to take gambles if the risk/reward looks favourable enough instead of waiting for the opportunity for the "perfect play". Once again they went for it this time and it looks like it's paying off big time.

Ayi's Tesla is his wife/gf's insistence, although I think they changed their mind and is still looking at the moment.
 
coolgod

coolgod

Colonel
Registered Member
I think a lot of us are underestimating the win this XHS situation is.

1. I've seen a couple of Foreigners (adults and kids) showing off and bragging about the Chinese that they have secretly learned before. These are prime 高外 or western 公知 material.

2. We haven't gotten new Hanfu waifus yet, but we have lots of people cosplaying characters from Chinese video games on XHS now. This is how beauty standards gets shifted over time.

3. People who look Chinese living in 东大 are going on XHS, let's just say some of them aren't too fond of their current country (they have a regional sub on reddit, worth checking out ;) )
 
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