PM Modi’s China visit: After hometown, now its social media diplomacy

In an attempt to increase communication with China, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made debut on Chinese social media website Weibo. PM Modi debuted on Weibo ahead of his visit to China.
PM Modi is set to visit China from May 14-16.

This will be his first visit to the country as prime minister. He had visited China many time as chief minister of Gujarat.

PM Modi has become the first Indian leader to open an account on the popular Chinese miocroblog with over 500 million users. He has debuted on it to reach out to the Chinese people.

He has got mixed reaction on joining the Weibo.

"Hello China! Looking forward to interacting with Chinese friends through Weibo," Modi wrote in his first post in Chinese language on the platform, which is akin to Twitter.

British Prime Minister David Cameron are among several international leaders who has joined Weibo to increase communication with Chinese people.

His initiative to join the microblog has praised by many as saying one more international personality joined it.

While on his visit to China, Modi will be visiting the famous Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an province and is also likely to visit Chinese President Xi Jinping's hometown.

Close on the heels of Nepal earthquake, PM Modi's China visit likely to play a pivotal role in relief work in the Himalayan nation devastated by the tragedy on April 25.

China has recently played down reports of competition with India in quake relief efforts in Nepal. China has expressed its will to work with India "positively" to help the Himalayan nation to tide over the crisis.

China and India launched their "Year of Friendship in 2014," which they hope will increase understanding and cooperation between the two big countries.

Reactions on Weibo will have any impact on India-China relation will be clear once PM Modi will go there.

OneIndia News