China's official media has lauded Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to communicate with the local people over Weibo, regarded as China's Twitter. By Sunday evening, Modi had 46,000 followers within six days of joining the Chinese social media, which is a rare feat by a foreign leader. Chinese media including the State-run English newspapers, China Daily and Global Times, have welcomed Modi's move while publishing reports about Modi's popularity on the web platform in China. The reports indicate the government's approval of Modi's endeavour to communicate with ordinary Chinese people. India-China relations have mostly been driven by government relations and media reports, and there has been little direct communication between the people of the two countries. This is the first time that an Indian leader is directly talking to Chinese people. "Modi has been welcomed by Chinese Net users with his first post," the Global Times, one of the organs of the Communist Party of China, said in a report headlined, 'Modi debuts on Weibo ahead of state visit to China'.
