US politicians start micro blogs in China

With the rapid development of micro blogs in China, more American politicians have become users.

By saying "Hi, China!" on the biggest micro-blog portal in China, Dave Heineman, governor of Nebraska in the United States, opened his communication channel with 300 million Chinese users.

After Heineman, Jim Suttle, mayor of Omaha, Nebraska, also greeted Chinese micro-blog users through his account on Sina Weibo, China's answer to Twitter. Both were later officially confirmed by the website.

Heineman and Suttle are not alone.

A total of 14 American politicians have started micro blogs in Chinese on Sina Weibo since Huang Jinbo, the first Chinese-American mayor in the US, opened his account in August 2009.

Among US politicians, Neil Bush, brother of former US president George W. Bush, is the most popular, with 119,000 followers at present.

US politicians use their Chinese micro blogs to communicate directly with Chinese netizens, both in China and in US communities, a spokeswoman for weibo.com, Sina Weibo's domain name, told China Daily.

American politicians are welcomed enthusiastically by Chinese netizens, who are mostly interested in visas, tourism and study in the US.

"The portal offers a good opportunity to communicate with those politicians, especially when news breaks relating to their countries or organizations," said Xu Aiyi, a micro-blog user in Shanghai.

"Governmental officials have become more active on our portal these days, and we are glad to offer this kind of communication portal between officials and the Chinese public," the Sina Weibo spokeswoman said.

She said that about 300 foreign officials and representatives from international organizations have opened micro blogs on weibo.com.

Among them are International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, former Australian prime minister Kelvin Michael Rudd and other political figures.