Brazilian leader debuts on Weibo

A screen shot of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's microblog on China's leading social network Weibo [Photo/weibo.com]

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff joined the ranks of foreign leaders tweeting on China's leading social network Weibo on Friday by posting her first microblog in Chinese.

Within the first 10 hours, her microblog was reposted more than 12,000 times and got 15,000 thumbs-up.

At 4:43 AM on Friday, her official microblog account "Baxi Zongtong" (Brazilian President) issued its first microblog. "Hello, the friends in China! Very glad to be able to communicate with everyone through microblog. Hopefully I could see you at the 2016 Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro."

The profile of her account showed that it was registered on Thursday.

The microblog was also attached with a short video clip presenting her video message to Chinese netizens.

In the video presentation of one minute and 36 seconds, Rousseff spent most of the time introducing the upcoming sports event in her homeland, saying that: "Here, you can feel the enthusiasm and dynamics of the Brazilian people."

"Brazil is ready to extend its arms to sports man and sports fans from China. Thank you, everyone. Zai Jian (goodbye)!," she said.

The blog was soon reposted by celebrities such as Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of China's computing giant Lenovo, and Cao Guowei, chairman and CEO of Sina.com.

It was also reposted by organization accounts such as the United Nations.

According to a release on Sina.com, there are close to 200 globally prominent political figures with microblog accounts, and Weibo has accommodated more than 400 international organizations.

Prominent political figures microblogging in China include British Prime Minister David Cameron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and former Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd.