Leader's direct bridge to Chinese people

Following the crisis in Ukraine, major players such as Russia, Ukraine, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and France are engaging in a war of words, not on Twitter or Facebook but on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

It was through its official micro blog account that the Russian embassy in China announced Russia's decision to recognize "the Lugansk People's Republic" and "the Donetsk People's Republic" as independent and sovereign states. Later, via the same medium, the Ukrainian embassy slammed the move and the US embassy released Secretary of State Antony Blinken's statement.

Besides the embassies, world leaders such as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, too, have opened their accounts on the micro blog. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has gone a step further and opened a public account on the WeChat app.

That so many Western politicians and political institutions are opening accounts on Chinese social networking sites shows Chinese people's growing influence in the global public opinion field. By June 2021, the number of Chinese people with access to the internet had reached 1.01 billion. It would definitely be unwise for the world to ignore the views of over a billion people.

Some might argue that the influence of Chinese social networking sites is limited to the Chinese language.

But, many foreigners are learning the Chinese language and it is difficult to separate overseas and domestic public opinion fields.

By using Chinese social media platforms, global leaders can also get a better understanding of what the Chinese people think. Also, they will be able to communicate their views about China directly with the Chinese people and promote friendship. They could learn from former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, whose posts are a hit with the Chinese people, who even address him as "Old Lu".

More politicians and institutions should open their hearts in this way and interact more sincerely with their Chinese followers, so as to promote warm ties.