Images of U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo are being used by Chinese trolls in fake advertising campaigns for Huawei’s new smartphone, according to a report. The Huawei Mate 60 Pro is being hailed in China as a symbol of the country’s technological progress in the face of American attempts to undermine advancement by restricting China’s access to sophisticated chips. Raimondo—who is responsible for overseeing the export controls the U.S. imposes to throttle Beijing’s access to chips—was concluding a trip to China when the new smartphone launched, and is now featuring as an unwitting brand ambassador for the device on social media. “No commerce secretary has been tougher than I on China,” Raimondo says at the beginning of one clip that then shows altered images of her posing with the phone. That video was posted by CCTV, the Chinese state TV network, on the nation’s version of TikTok, which may indicate that the trolling enjoys some degree of official approval.
