This Article is From May 04, 2015

PM Modi's Entry to Weibo Gets Mixed Response From the Chinese

PM Modi's Entry to Weibo Gets Mixed Response From the Chinese

A screengrab of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Official Weibo Account.

Beijing:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's venture into Sina Weibo - China's answer to Twitter - has received a mixed response from Chinese users.

While most welcomed him to Weibo and praised his efforts to reach out to the Chinese people ahead of his visit to the country, a few users posted political comments on Tibet -- reiterating Beijing's official stand that Tibet is a part of China. China claims Arunachal Pradesh is part of Southern Tibet.

"Southern Tibet is China's, Thank you," read one post. Another read, "Welcome. Welcome. but Southern Tibet is China's".

Another post read: "India's Prime Minister, hello! Hope that during your administration, we can push to solve the problem about the border territory. So that there will be more trust and healthy development between our two countries. Common prosperity,"

In April, the Chinese foreign ministry described Arunachal as a "huge dispute". In February, China had issued a strongly-worded statement and lodged an official protest against PM Modi's visit to Arunachal Pradesh.

PM Modi was the first Indian politician to log onto Weibo ahead of his China visit. The popular microblogging site has over 500 million users.

His first post read, "Hello China! Looking forward to interacting with Chinese friends through Weibo".

On the first day, PM Modi's account drew over 7,000 hits. One of the responses he received read, "When will Xi Dada (a nickname for Chinese President Xi Jinping) open a Weibo account?"

PM Modi is expected to begin his three-day state visit to China on May 14. The visit follows the invitation by Mr Jinping, who was in India in September last year.

International services like Google, Facebook and Twitter aren't available in China, and local services that have similar features have become immensely popular with the people of China.

Several international leaders, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, have joined Weibo to step up interaction with Chinese people. Mr Cameron's account has received over 800,000 hits.

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