Russian trolls have blown that single call out of proportion. We, too, can have a phone call and discuss who we'd prefer the next Chinese leader to be; it doesn't mean we actually have much influence over that. We can even discuss right here on HN who we'd like to see as the next American president, and it would not be factually wrong to characterize the discussion as "people on the most popular Silicon Valley forum frequented by tech billionaires picking the next president." But it wouldn't be entirely truthful either, would it?