China tensions have precipitated a decade-long decline in bilateral people-to-people exchanges. Read more at straitstimes.com.

According to their website, Xiaohongshu is “a lifestyle platform for young people…With the mission of ‘Inspire Lives – Sharing and Discovering the Wonders of the World’”. It was founded in Shanghai, China, in 2013. The company claims that as of 2019, it had over 300 million users and 100 million monthly active users.

Duolingo shares have jumped this week, as the number of Americans learning Mandarin on the app has soared 216%. That's as China's RedNote is now the most downloaded free app on Apple's App Store ahead of the TikTok ban.