House chair on China sounds off on TikTok rival RedNote, which has climbed to the top of the app charts
Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
- A Chinese social app called RedNote has risen to the top of the Apple app store.
- TikTokers are flocking to RedNote as they brace for a possible shutdown due to a divest-or-ban law.
- Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House committee on the CCP, said RedNote may be the next divestment target.
A Chinese social app called Xiaohongshu is surging in the US this week. But the good times may not last, as it could become a target of the same divest-or-ban law that's plaguing TikTok, according to the chair of a US House committee focused on competition with China.
RedNote jumped to the top of Apple's app store rankings this week. Some have tied its rise to a looming TikTok shutdown, as TikTok "refugees" try out other social apps.
Like TikTok, Xiaohongshu, commonly called RedNote in the US, is owned by a company in China, a country the US government has deemed a foreign adversary. An April law requires social apps with foreign-adversary owners to divest from their US assets or effectively shut down.
Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House select committee on the strategic competition between the US and the Chinese Communist Party, told Business Insider when asked if the app is subject to the same divest-or-ban law as TikTok, that the decision would be up to President-elect Donald Trump.
"Chairman Mao's Little Red Book was instrumental in China's communist cultural revolution," Moolenaar said as part of a statement. "Today, a Chinese app of the same name wants to be the next TikTok — complete with Chinese control."
Xiaohongshu translates to "little red book."
"The good news is that President Trump has the authority under the TikTok bill to force divestment of other CCP-controlled applications that pose national security risks as well," Moolenaar added.
Xiaohongshu did not respond to a request for comment.
TikTok has previously said that it does not share information with the Chinese government and that its content-moderation efforts are run by a US-based team that "operates independently from China."
Trump has pledged to try to save TikTok from a ban. He hasn't said whether he'd take action on other apps with Chinese owners.
Xiaohongshu functions similarly to Instagram and TikTok, with commerce tools. The platform began in China but has since expanded into other parts of the world with around 300 million monthly users, per Bloomberg.