To Tweet or Not to Tweet Is the Question as Trump Visits China

by Dramelin 10:00 PM 0 comments

To Tweet or Not to Tweet Is the Question as Trump Visits China This is not a trick question: Should President Donald Trump tweet from China? Of course, he will if he can, administration officials say -- even at the risk of flouting the privilege in a nation that generally denies Western social media to its own people.
And Trump could create diplomatic tensions by tweeting unless the U.
first discussed it with the Chinese government, which isn’t clear.
So it’s not a small consideration.
 The answer has implications for cybersecurity, diplomacy, business and human rights.
The White House convened internal discussions and tapped U.
counterintelligence officials to consult on the matter before the president left for Asia last week, said a person familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Staff traveling with the president were advised to leave their personal cellphones behind and instead carry travel phones, people familiar with the matter said.
China blocks Twitter for most of its citizens.
though people with access to virtual private networks, or VPNs, have been able to bypass social media restrictions despite government efforts to crack down on the practice.
China has occasionally allowed brief access to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter when it hosts international summits.
And Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government has made Twitter available to various high-level foreigners, said Adam Segal, director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program with the Council on Foreign Relations.
Ahead of Trump’s arrival, he said, the Chinese government has signaled that if Trump wants to tweet no one would stop him.
Burner Phone The question may be how -- not if -- the U.
president brings his tweets to China.
“Most people worried about security, when they go to China, don’t bring their own phones, or bring a burner phone,” Segal said.
“On the security side, I assume they’d prefer he didn’t use his phone.
”  And in fact, all White House staff have burner phones that will be “purged” when they get back.
Sophie Richardson, China Director for Human Rights Watch, said in an email that Xi’s government has imposed “Orwellian controls” on free expression and social media use, imposing cybersecurity and national security restrictions, unchecked surveillance and prosecutions of critics.
“If President Trump is able to tweet from China it’s because he enjoys privileges President Xi systematically denies to people across that country -- access to circumvention technology, an actionable right to free speech, and of course an ability to leave China freely should the authorities there dislike what he says,” said Richardson.
‘Censored and blocked’ Twitter declined to say whether its representatives had consulted with the Trump administration ahead of the visit, citing a policy of not commenting on discussions with government officials.
“Our consumer service is censored and blocked in mainland China today,” the company said in a statement.
“As a global platform, we are already engaged with advertisers, content providers and influencers across Greater China to help them reach audiences around the world.
president has overturned convention at home with his use of Twitter to announce policy, stoke culture wars, settle personal grievances and generally bypass the filters of his own aides and the media.
Trump continues to get as many likes and retweets as ever, and he tweeted as many as 109 times in one week in September amid an uproar over some National Football League players kneeling during the national anthem, according to Talkwalker, which analyzes social media data.
He has kept up the pace on his Asia visit so far, tweeting dozens of times from Air Force One and during stops in Tokyo and Seoul on issues ranging from Hillary Clinton to the stock market to the shooting in Texas to the trip itself.
But there isn’t much precedent for how he should deal with China.
Obama in China Trump’s immediate predecessor, Barack Obama, was the first sitting president with a Twitter account.
But that didn’t happen until late in his presidency, and he didn’t tweet with nearly Trump’s frequency.
A review of his account during his last official trip to China in 2016 shows that he didn’t tweet during his time on the ground.
One former Obama adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said all government travelers -- particularly those with security clearance and access to the most sensitive information -- were advised not to take their own cell phones into China.
They were told that anything officials carried into the country should be disposable and to assume any equipment used was being monitored.
Former White House press secretary Josh Earnest recalled Obama did use an iPad in China.
He said an aide had to hold it at all times and it couldn’t be connected to the Internet through local networks.
government would scan devices before entering and after leaving China, checking for any changes.
As to whether Trump tweets in China, Earnest said it may not have much impact with an audience that overwhelmingly lacks the ability to access the message.
“He should do a Twitter town hall and take questions that Chinese submit through social media,” Earnest said.
“That would make a statement in support of a principle.