WhatsApp is currently blocked in China. You can't use it there, anyway.

WeChat uses Chinese infrastructure no matter where in the world you are. Not using it in China is the most stupid thing you can do.

Do international tensions actually reach down to students, if they obey the law and manner of respect?

> Do international tensions actually reach down to students, if they obey the law and manner of respect?

Yes, international tensions are often about things that aren't illegal, and even where they concern things which one state views as illegal, they often target people suspected who may not always be guilty. And even if they target only the actually guilty, when it relates to communication systems, that can have impacts on people several hops removed from an actual target.

Yeh because they may be researching things interesting to the CCP so they usually grab a few and question them

I'm a Chinese and I prefer using telegram via proxy to break GFW. But most friends or relationship using wechat, so it is helpless to keep using wechat.

Aren't both of those E2EE? And even if they weren't, wouldn't TLS be sufficient for China to not have the capability to do anything?

WhatsApp sure, WeChat no way no how. Its' routinely and openly used to spy on citizens.

You can concievably MITM WhatsApp too, at least if your target isn't that observant. The only indication that your connection has been rekeyed is a message in your chat which could be easily missed.

Is there any PoC, or end-to-end description supporting your claim that this is possible?

I'm quite sure WhatsApp uses transport security, too. You can't just MitM then.

Does whatsapp work in China? I had to switch to telegram to talk to a friend that lives over there because it stopped working a few months ago.

Yes, it does, though intermittently, so it's incredibly suspicious to me.