Virtual: WeChat, TikTok, Potential Bans, and the US-China relationship

WeChat and TikTok are tremendously popular apps out of China—one for communication, payments, and all kinds of personal business, and the other for social media and entertainment content. They have also become political footballs over the past several months, as American politicians present them as a threat to U.S. national security and push for new business arrangements if they are to remain accessible to American markets. This panel will discuss the applications, their use in China and the United States, and what the political controversy means for U.S.-China relations moving forward.

Panelists:

– Prof. Yong Cai is associate professor and director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Sociology at UNC.

– Prof. Christian Lundblad is Distinguished Professor of Finance and associate dean of the doctoral program at Kenan-Flagler Business School.

– Lili Liu is one of the Carolina Asia Center’s visiting scholars, coming to us from Beijing, China, where she directs the Little Lotus Child Development Center.

– Tianmi Stilphen is a law candidate at the UNC School of Law and president of the Media Law Society.