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Ukraine-Russia crisis: foreign embassies seek support on Chinese social media
- Diplomats from all sides are looking to drum up support on platforms such as Weibo
- It is not clear how far different countries are able to sway Chinese opinion, but some posts by embassies have attracted thousands of views and comments
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Ukraine, Russia and various Western nations have become increasingly active on Chinese social media as they seek to win support for their various positions during the current crisis.
On Tuesday a post by the Ukrainian embassy in Beijing became one of the most-searched topics on the popular Twitter-style platform Weibo.
The post was a translation of Kyiv’s condemnation of Monday’s announcement by Russia that it would recognise Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine as independent entities and attracted 3 million searches and nearly 800,000 likes on Tuesday.
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The most liked comment below the embassy’s post – which read “international court hearing opens on Weibo” – attracted more than 14,000 likes.
However, many of the most-liked comments were less sympathetic to Ukraine. One that said “another country that’s being used as a US chess piece. Pathetic” gained over 10,000 likes.
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Beijing has so far officially “expressed concern” about the Ukraine crisis but refrained from taking a clear position on the conflict despite previous calls for “understanding of Russia’s reasonable concerns.”
However, Russia, the United States, Britain and France have all also sought to win over millions of Chinese social media users by posting on Weibo – with mixed results.
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