Twitter-like Weibo account in China is very trendy and famous .
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Weibo account was set up in 2015 amid much fanfare and publicity at the time of his first visit to China as prime minister. Modi’s posts on Weibo were in Chinese.
Modi not only met 18 times with Chinese Primer Xi but he also used Chinese language and thus the account had 244000 followers many of them Chinese.
Since 2015, but barring this year, Modi had wished President Xi Jinping ahead of his birthday on June 15.
Modi also regularly published messages on Sino-India ties especially after meetings with Xi.
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But now Modi account went blank on Wednesday after his photo, posts and comments were removed from the handle.
The removal of all information from Modi’s Weibo comes 10 days after at least three official Indian statements including the PM’s were deleted from the Indian embassy’s official account on the popular social media app, WeChat.
It could not be immediately ascertained when Modi’s Weibo handle was taken down but on Wednesday, the page was blank.
It also comes in the backdrop of India banning 59 Chinese apps on Monday because of security and data breach concerns.
The sudden taking down of Modi’s Weibo account and removal of the Indian government’s posts on Chinese social media come in the backdrop of the violent face-off, and ongoing tension, between Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley region.
While on June 15 , taking on Chinese Army 20 Indian Army soldiers died, and more than 50 Indian Army were critically injured made the border issue more murkier
On June 20, an India’s external affairs ministry (MEA) statement about the Indian position on the ongoing border tension with China was mysteriously deleted from the embassy’ official Weibo account a day before the WeChat posts were deleted.
However, the message that popped up on WeChat when clicking the MEA’s statement on the Galwan Valley clash said: “This content was reported and confirmed by the platform of the following:” before it says in Mandarin: “Suspected of violating relevant laws, regulations and policies”.
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