Chinese communist leader turns to blogging

Hu Jintao has registered on China's version of Twitter

China’s technocratic and colourless communist president Hu Jintao has apparently taken a page from western politicians and celebrities by entering the world of micro-blogging. While Twitter is still banned in China, the country’s main communist newspaper, The People’s Daily, runs a social networking service that many have dubbed the “Chinese Twitter,” since it is based on the same premise of tweets, followers and the ability to comment on posts. Hu Jintao has registered his very own account and more than 600 people decided to sign up to his thread each hour since he opened his profile yesterday. While Hu is clearly popular among China’s micro-bloggers—or at the very least has sparked their curiosity—the only problem is that the Chinese president has yet to utter a single tweet since joining more than 24 hours ago.

China’s strangely silent president is already frustrating his more than 16,680 followers, who are keen to hear what this populous country’s leader has to say to the Blogosphere.  But even if Hu himself is not yet active, his censors seem to be working overtime. A report in The London Telegraph noted that some mildly critical comments posted by followers on the micro-blogging site have mysteriously vanished. Well over a thousand comments have already been posted, some of which were compliments and pleasantries. But others wondered loudly when China would finally allow access to the real Twitter site in this country of over a billion people. One enthusiastic follower went as far as to convince “Boss Hu” on his micro-blogging profile that there was no risk in opening China to Twitter, as most people would steer clear of any “counter-revolutionary” tweets.