Foreign Ministry joins chattering masses

China’s Foreign Ministry has become the country's first government ministry to join the social media scene, with a newly minted account on the country’s hottest micro-blogging platform.

The official People’s Daily newspaper reports the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ account, opened April 13 on Sina’s Weibo service, had drawn 45,000 followers as of Tuesday. China has blocked access to foreign social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, along with Youtube and some blog hosting sites but Weibo has a vibrant and engaged Chinese-language population — an estimated 18 million users. They debate, often post controversial items and are sometimes censored, but the service remains an interesting and somewhat open host for conversation.

Thus far, the ministry has posted “details about events in China's history of foreign affairs, visa information, and pictures and brief items regarding current affairs, including news from the BRICS Leaders Meeting and Boao Forum for Asia,” People’s Daily said.