It took months of planning before Modi said ‘hello’ to China

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who would be visiting India’s northern neighbour this week, made an entry into China’s version of Twitter, Weibo, after weeks of careful preparation.

As per officials close to this matter, Modi, who will be in China from April 14-16, embraced the social media platform after spending much time on it to get familiar with it.

Modi, who has the third largest following on Twitter after US President Barack Obama and Pope Francis, had decided to get onto to Weibo two months ago, an official told Economic Times.

The Prime Minster himself gave the idea of connecting with people through social media before he was leaving for his three-nation tour to Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, said the official.

“When the numbers were provided to him, he said he wanted to join a Chinese social media platform to reach out to people there," the official told the financial daily.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) volunteers in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong were asked to give their inputs on the good platform to join. Platforms like QZone, Renren, Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo and Tudou were on his list and finally , it was decided that Modi would join Sina Weibo.

As of Sunday, Modi had 44,900 followers on Weibo. His first post, saying hello to people of China, has over 11 million reads; 8,733 forwards; 12,316 comments and 18,594 likes.

(Image: Reuters)