US-owned messaging apps, including WhatsApp and Signal, are banned in China, so for Zhou’s mother, WeChat—a social messaging and payments platform owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent—has become a lifeline. The app has around 19 million daily active users in the US. Many of them, like Zhou’s mother, depend on the app to stay connected to family overseas and to the tight-knit Chinese communities in the States.

Zhou, 38, works in project management and mobile app development, and says he’s conflicted about using the app, which is heavily censored and monitored in China. (WeChat users outside of China received notifications last year informing them that their personal data, including likes, comments, and search history, would be transmitted back to the People’s Republic.) But Zhou says he’s willing to make the tradeoff between privacy and staying connected to his parents. “For my generation, it’s easy enough for us to move on to another app,” he says. “There’s a million different apps, but for those that are not tech savvy … it will be difficult for them to move to another application.”

[That’s precisely what the CCP wants. Even more than TikTok, WeChat forces ex-pats to pay obeisance to Beijing, and the app allows the CCP to access every aspect of their lives. It is basically a surveillance system aimed at China’s emigrés to keep them in line. It’s more insidious than TikTok because it allows for active punitive measures both on the emigrés and their families. — Ed]