As soon as I wake up, in come the messages over WeChat.
From the microbrewery near my Beijing apartment: “All the beer on tap buy one get one.”
From a neighbourhood group: “Morning everyone! Giving this furniture for free.”
From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China on the decision to close the US consulate in Chengdu: “The US is responsible for all this.”
And on and on: calls, private messages and group threads, buzzing throughout the day on my WeChat account (called Weixin in China). It’s the ambient sound of China today.
Few shops in China accept credit cards and many don’t take cash any more, so I use WeChat’s payment function (which is linked to my Chinese state-controlled bank account) at my local cafe, at a street stall to buy fruit and at the place over the road that sells hot dry noodles, a Wuhan specialty.
WeChat also is used to house the COVID-19 “mini-programs” that are required to enter shops, parks and travel around the country. If you plan to leave your Chinese apartment (or farm) this year and beyond, you will have to have this WeChat-enabled set-up on your phone. They are linked to your Chinese resident ID (for nationals) or passport (for foreigners like me).
The app is like a hybrid of Facebook and WhatsApp (both banned in China) with Apple Pay, Gumtree, COVIDSafe and more — all watched over by the Chinese Communist Party.
In short, it is a libertarian’s nightmare. But a few whopping numbers suggest that is not dissuading users. With almost one billion users, it is the most popular app in China, although that is helped by the banning of most would-be competitors.
WeChat’s parent company, Tencent, this week overtook Facebook to become the most valuable social media company in the world, valued at just under $1 trillion. Co-founder Ma Huateng (aka “Pony” Ma) is worth about $82bn, or more than four Andrew Forrests, even after the current China-induced iron ore surge.
Shenzhen-based tech entrepreneur Ma, a CCP member, works closely with the Beijing government on internet policy. That relationship has helped make him China’s richest man. It also has given Xi Jinping’s administration a formidable asset to maintain “political stability”.
As well as being terrific for splitting dinner bills, WeChat helps the party monitor Chinese public sentiment and “guide” public opinion with a highly curated news feed. A post deemed inappropriate might lead to you being asked in for a chat at your local police station.
The partnership of the tech giant and the almost 100-year-old CCP is a legacy of the party’s decision to allow business people such as Ma to become members in 2000, the year US president Bill Clinton laughed at the Chinese government’s attempt to crack down on the internet. “That’s sort of like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall,” Clinton scoffed.
Twenty years on, WeChat is proof of the party’s success.
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