The impact of heating up Indian-Chinese relations, Weibo erased Narendra Modi’s account

Reporter: Handoyo | Editor: Handoyo

KONTAN.CO.ID – HONG KONG. Sina Weibo said it had deleted the account of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the request of the Indian embassy, ​​because tensions between the two countries continued to burn due to the border dispute.

Quoted from Reuters, since posting on Sina Weibo for the first time in 2015 during a visit to China, Modi has been an inactive user of the Chinese social media platform. He has more than 200,000 followers and 100 posts before the account is closed.

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Sina Weibo announced the closure of the account late Wednesday and the deletion came days after India banned dozens of Chinese applications, including Sina Weibo and ByteDance TikTok, after border clashes between the two countries.

The Indian embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to requests for comment via email.

Modi is among a handful of foreign leaders with Weibo accounts. Others included Boris Johnson from England, Justin Trudeau from Canada, and Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela.

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Specifically, Modi revealed the date of birth of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang by saying “Happy Birthday” on Weibo. Discussions about the personal lives of senior leaders are very rare in China and the exact date of birth of most of them is not publicly disclosed.

In contrast, Chinese leaders are rarely active on social media. Foreign social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are blocked in China.