From TikTok, RedNote to Deepseek
The Role of Humanity in Technology
Note:
This is one of my earliest pieces about how CCP-backed tech is infiltrating all over the world. (I am still reading the books now as I am preparing the series of analysis around AI, tech and philosophy. )
Stay tuned :)
In January 2025, amid the U.S. TikTok ban, many users migrated to the Chinese app RedNote (Xiaohongshu), sparking a 216% surge in Americans learning Mandarin on Duolingo compared to last year.
RedNote, on the other hand, was urgently hiring English-speaking moderators to manage content under China’s strict censorship laws. In the "TikTokCringe" subreddit, a tearful RedNote user expressed concern that Americans migrating to the platform could impact Chinese Americans who use it to stay connected with Chinese culture.
According to the user, RedNote has been implementing IP-based restrictions in the greater China region, potentially limiting access for Chinese Americans who rely on the app for cultural connection. Some Reddit users suggested this could be a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) measure to limit American influence - similar to how CCP has historically blocked Western social media platforms, and ironically parallel to the US TikTok ban.
Politics, at its core, is about people—about building and maintaining a society where individuals can pursue life, liberty, and happiness. We can't simply separate technology from politics because both of them fundamentally involve human beings and their interactions.
It’s fair to say that cross-border collaborations between technical and academic organizations often result in greater innovation and significant breakthroughs. Take applied AI research as an example: promising AI tools often fail when moved even slightly outside the context of their original lab or society. These failures can happen quickly and unpredictably, which is probably why cross-border collaborations are vital—they allow testing in diverse contexts to ensure broader applicability.
Yet how can we be sure that our international collaborators won't become adversaries?
While Western nations, like the US, focus on creating regulations and governance frameworks, authoritarian regimes and kleptocrats, the CCP, are leveraging their state power to advance their technological capabilities and gain competitive advantages.
Consider DeepSeek, a CCP-led Chinese AI company, released DeepSeek V3 and the R1 reasoning model, which triggered a significant market downturn and a substantial drop in the valuation of major tech companies, especially those heavily invested in AI, like Nvidia.
And DeepSeek isn't alone. CCP-led Chinese AI models are dominating the open-source space:
Alibaba's Qwen models are the most downloaded on Hugging Face.
The leading video models are developed CCP-led Chinese companies, including Hunyuan (the next best video model after Google's Veo 2—which is remarkably capable.
With all of this, can we still maintain optimism about technology's future impact? Can we embrace the Techno-optimist mindset and believe that "Technology is a lever on the world" and that "no material problem exists that more technology cannot solve"?
What is technology's role in our lives today, and what will it become in the future?
I am always amazed by the Great Seal of the United States. The eagle holds both an olive branch and arrows, symbolizing readiness to defend liberty. The eagle's head faces the olive branch, showing that peace is always preferred, honored, and pursued. Yet the arrows remind us of our strength to defend our freedom when needed.
This symbolism applies to technology—if hostile actors are advancing their technological capabilities and could harm humanity, we must accelerate our own technological development to defend ourselves. Better yet, we should be proactive and develop superior capabilities that deter any potential threats.
Perhaps technology is like a double-edged sword—capable of both good and bad.
Perhaps we must also trust in humanity's better nature, acknowledging that while technological progress is inevitable.
Justice and good will always prevail.
Just in time.