How WeChat is turning Chinese Americans on to the US presidential race

Grace Su had never been involved in politics until she joined a discussion group on WeChat, China’s most popular social messaging app.

Su, a US resident, signed up for the group in protest after Chinese American police officer Peter Liang was convicted in April of manslaughter and official misconduct in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in New York in 2014.

Su soon joined several groups on WeChat to discuss Liang’s case, and as the presidential election season began rolling, she and other Chinese Americans shifted their focus to the candidates.

Since then, Su has signed up for more than 200 WeChat groups and become a key organiser of a nationwide Chinese American movement supporting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. WeChat has been integral to her political transformation.

“To be honest, I rarely got in touch with other Chinese Americans before February this year because I don’t live in a Chinese-American neighbourhood,” said Su, who moved to the United States in 2008. In stark contrast to the role it plays in mainland China, WeChat has become an unlikely champion of democracy on the US presidential campaign trail by giving a voice to the Chinese Americans who have long been silent on American politics.

While political discussions and protest calls may be stifled quickly on the social messaging app in mainland China, Chinese Americans across the US are using it to rally support for their favoured candidates. Asian-Americans made up only 2.9 per cent of voters in 2012 but the ethnic group is among the fastest growing in the US, up from 1.7 per cent in 1996.