President Xi Jinping has touted people exchanges as the foundation of healthy US ties. A flood of TikTok “refugees” to Chinese app Xiaohongshu may test his limit for such unscripted interactions.

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.

Some TikTok users aren't waiting until the upcoming Jan. 19 ban to test out other short-form video sharing apps, but instead of Meta 's social media sites or the Fediverse, they're swarming to other Chinese-owned mobile software platforms.