Situated in the context of a first‐year writing course at a Midwestern public university in the United States, this study examines Chinese international students' networking practices through the mediation of WeChat, a popular social networking application for smartphones. Based on interviews with 36 students and detailed accounts of one focal student's activities in WeChat study groups, this study shows that students' literacy practices and identities are dynamically co‐constructed with intersecting local and global forces. Social theories of identity and the Chinese concept of guanxi (carefully cultivated personal connections that are used to gain social advantages) provide ways to examine identities at the intersection of local and distant circumstances and practices that span geographical and linguistic spaces. Findings reveal the implications of such identity work on students' social and academic experiences, while encouraging teachers to consider pedagogical practices that leverage students' rich cultural and linguistic knowledge.