The newly opened Weibo account of the Spokesperson Office of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is creating quite a buzz among young netizens.    

The account has attracted more than 530,000 followers in the first 24 hours of its debut Monday. and zoomed to the top 10 hot trending topics on Sina Weibo. 

"The fewer the words, the more important the issue. Welcome to follow us" That was the concise debut post from the official Weibo account.

The next three posts were about China's position about the ongoing trade war with the US, Huawei's issue and military issues concerning China, Russia and the US. 

Netizens gave a warm welcome to the newbie Weibo account showing affection and admiration to Chinese diplomats and spokespersons from the foreign ministry. 

"It's nice for the spokesperson office to open this account, which shows the importance the government attaches to social media… It [also] shows that they are really willing to communicate with us in a way that is familiar to the public and popular among young people. That is progress," commented a Weibo user. 

 "Lu Kang is smiling. That is rare but nice," said a fan of the well-known spokesperson who is often seen wearing a stern expression. 

Many netizens asked the foreign ministry to hold a lucky draw, as the Ministry of National Defense did last year. 

At a press conference last December, the Defense Ministry surprisingly announced a list of ten funny net names from netizens who had won a lucky draw held by the ministry's official WeChat account. Since then, the image of the ministry has changed as its new, affable tone amused people.

The Palace Museum's in recent years also worked actively to close the gap with common people through a series of activities and creative culture products. 

In March, the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOPCAS) of China announced a plan to popularize science knowledge among youngsters through its cooperation with Bilibili, a Chinese video sharing platform themed around animation, comic, and games. The academy has attracted about 296,000 viewers.

Global Times