Editor's note: The following article was translated and edited from an article that appeared in Beijing Youth Daily. It discusses the growing presence of foreign dignitaries on China's Weibo (microblogging) platform.

Photo: Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Sina Weibo page

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde wishing everyone a happy (Chinese) New Year; former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd helping out two Chinese students in need; the Mayor of London Boris Johnson canvasing for a recent election... These days, it seems that foreign dignitaries are increasingly turning to China's Weibo (microblogging) platform to better connect with Chinese netizens. But why?

More than 300 foreign dignitaries already on Weibo

According to a report by the U.S.-based China Press, U.S. politicians are starting to flock to social media websites in China such as Sina Weibo. For example, on May 10th, both Dave Heineman (Governor of Nebraska) and Jim Suttle (Mayor of Omaha) both registered Sina Weibo accounts. And according to official statistics, there are currently another dozen U.S. politicians who are active on Sina Weibo, including Stephen A. Orlins, the President of the National Committee on United States-China Relations and Edwin M. Lee, the Mayor of San Francisco. But this recent phenomenon is not mutually exclusive to the United States; the Sina Weibo platform has also attracted foreign dignitaries from quite a few countries as well as several international institutions. According to data provided by the Public Relations Department at Sina Weibo, in total, there are currently about 300 foreign dignitaries from the United States, Britain, Japan, Australia, as well as from United Nations and International Monetary Fund that are currently using its platform.

Canvasing for votes and "getting personal" with Chinese netizens

Among the foreign dignitaries active on Sina Weibo, some write in their native language, while others write in Chinese or in both languages. The content of their posts is quite extensive, including the expectedly frequent updates on their political activities, as well as posts about their home lives.

During the recent (May 3rd, 2012) election for the Mayor of London, three candidates turned the Sina Weibo platform into another "political battlefield". Boris Johnson, the current Mayor of London, as well as Labour Party candidate Ken Livingstone and Liberal Democratic Party candidate Brian Paddick all recently registered Weibo accounts as part of their respective campaigns, using it as an additional outlet to canvass for votes, while also holding an online debate on the platform.

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who is proficient in Chinese, recently used his Sina Weibo page to help two Chinese students contact the police after they were robbed and assaulted on a train travelling from Sydney on April 23. Following the attack, one of the victims, user "Xuan Hao", recounted the experience on his Weibo page (he claimed that no one on the train did anything to stop the attack), which was seen and forwarded to Rudd by another Chinese Weibo user residing in Australia. Rudd responded in Chinese that he would voice his concern to the Australian Ministry of Immigration and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as try to meet with student representatives in Sydney to discuss the incident.

Personally authored or staff-written?

Besides being constantly busy, a majority of foreign dignitaries interested in utilising the Weibo platform must also deal with the whole "language barrier" issue… so how do they go about posting content to their Weibo pages? An employee in the public relations department at Sina Weibo told the reporter that it really varies from person to person. Occasionally, these politicians will personally update their Weibo pages, but oftentimes, an assistant or Press Officer will be responsible for updating or synchronising the Weibo content with their "tweets".

For example, a portion of Herman Van Rompuy's (President of the European Council) Weibo content is synchronised with his "tweets", while his Press Officer, based on his oral dictation, writes and publishes the other content. During a recent visit to China, Van Rompuy's Press Officer was responsible for posting photos and oral dictations to his Weibo page.

Yet those (few) foreign dignitaries who speak Chinese often insist on writing their own posts. Kevin Rudd recently posted the following message on his Weibo page: "Many Weibo friends have recently been asking me whether I write my own Weibo posts. Of course I do! Consequently, these posts are full of grammar and usage mistakes. If I used a translator, surely that wouldn't be the case; it'd be completely fluent sounding. Ha ha!" Original Chinese post: "有不少微博朋友问我是否我本人写这些在微博汉字。当然是我!因此我在这边写的中文有这么多语法以及用法方面的错误。如果我用翻译的话,肯定没有任何错误,全面流利。哈哈!老陆".

How are the authenticities of foreign dignitaries' accounts verified?

According to an employee in the public relations department at Sina Weibo, they are very careful in verifying the accounts of foreign dignitaries and international institutions, and employ specialists who check over every bit of their submitted information before granting their account a "V" (verification).

In order to avoid any false identities that may mislead the public, Sina Weibo implements a rigid verification process for famous people and institutions that wish to create a Weibo account. For such accounts, upon verification, a "V" appears after their username. The United Nation's was the earliest international institution to register a Weibo account. Soon after registering, Sina Weibo employees flagged the account, and emailed back and forth with the UN website to verify its authenticity, which took about a week to complete. Upon confirmation, the UN sent a formal letter to Sina Weibo, who then "V"ed the account.

Why are foreign dignitaries joining Weibo?

According to Chen Changfeng, the Vice President of the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University, following the rapid development of social media in China, many foreign dignitaries are hoping to utilise the Weibo platform to further expand the scope of their public relations efforts. 

To put things in perspective, according to data released by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), in less than three years, more than 300 million Chinese have already registered Weibo accounts. And as the Weibo platform continues to grow in influence, many foreign dignitaries, seem to have identified its potential value, and are registering their own accounts to expand the channels of communication with Chinese netizens.

However, according to Chen Changfeng, in absolute terms, not that many foreign dignitaries have joined Weibo. After all, Weibo isn't their main platform for political PR. Nonetheless, political PR is often known for its pervasiveness, and as China's international influence continues to grow, it's likely that foreign dignitaries will increasingly flock to its Weibo platform to expand their influence and garner additional support.

Take for example the recent debate between candidates in the London mayoral election that took place on Sina Weibo. According to official statistics, London's population is currently about 7.6 million, among which about 5.6 million are eligible to vote. Of these eligible voters, approximately 100,000 are Chinese citizens residing in London. One doesn't need to be a political insider to see that the predominant reason these three candidates registered Weibo accounts was to compete for the Chinese vote.
 

Source: bjyouth

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Keywords: Foreign dignitaries on Sina Weibo foreigners on Chinese microblogging sites foreign politicians on Weibo