WeChat is best known as China’s all-purpose “super-app”. It is used for everything from messaging and mobile payments to shopping and government services.
As of June 2024, WeChat reported a staggering 1.37 billion active monthly users globally. For many Chinese-speaking diaspora communities – such as in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom – the app is a lifeline to their homeland and communities.
But my new research, published this week in Policy & Internet, shows WeChat has also become a powerful – and largely overlooked – component of China’s policing and public security infrastructure.
