Weibo a new 'battlefield' of words in Russia-Ukraine crisis

The Chinese social media platform Weibo seems to have become a new "battlefield" at a time of peaking tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson first sent a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Twitter-like Chinese platform on February 15, three months after his last post about a promise made by China and US on climate change.

Johnson asked Putin to step back from an invasion and warned him to "avoid doing what would be a disastrous mistake for Russia."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent a message in Chinese to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Weibo. But Chinese netizens seem to be more interested in Sherlock Holmes.

Written in Chinese, the post, in fact, was a translation of a message he issued on Twitter on the same day. It soon went viral on Weibo, with more than 71,000 retweets and 1.6 million "likes" as of Wednesday night.

However, Johnson might not have thought that Chinese netizens would be amused by his post on such a serious topic. They preferred to ask him for news of the TV series Sherlock Holmes rather than discussing politics.

Among around 67,000 comments, the most popular one said, "that … Sherlock Holmes," which gained more than 153,000 likes.

Many other Chinese netizens were puzzled and raised the question, "Since Putin has no account on Weibo, why is the UK prime minister sending a message here?"

It seems the mockery didn't affect Johnson.

He sent another post about the Russia-Ukraine crisis in Chinese on Weibo eight days later. "Vladimir Putin has violated Ukrainian sovereignty and international law. … Putin should fail," he wrote.

But again, most netizens were more interested in the fictional detective.

The Johnson's posts on the Chinese social media platform ultimately sparked a war of words among the conflicting parties.

The Russian embassy in China fought back on Weibo on February 16, denouncing Johnson's post as the "information terrorism" of Western propaganda.

The Russian embassy in China denouncesd Johnson's post as the "information terrorism" of Western propaganda on Weibo.

Declining to wave a white feather, the Ukrainian embassy in China also joined the war of words on Weibo.

It released a statement in Chinese on February 22 concerning the issue of Russia recognizing "the Lugansk People's Republic" and "the Donetsk People's Republic" as independent and sovereign states.

Garnering more than 799,000 likes within two days, the post caused the issue to soon trend on Weibo.

The US, the UK and EU countries also issued their statements of condemnation and sanctions in Chinese on Weibo.

The Ukrainian embassy in China releases a statement after Russia recognized "the Lugansk People's Republic" and "the Donetsk People's Republic" as independent and sovereign states.

Many netizens were surprised that Weibo had become a place for "court hearing of international affairs" while others joked that the Russia-Ukraine battle had been moved online because of the pandemic.

Sending messages on Chinese social media has become an aspect of diplomacy for these countries, reflecting their regard for Chinese public opinion on the issue.

A hug between Russian and Ukrainian athletes is captured on camera during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Olympics.

Another topic involving Russia and Ukraine also became hot on Weibo recently, a photo of a hug between athletes from the two countries.

Winning Ukraine's first medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Oleksandr Abramenko celebrated by getting a hug from Russian skier Ilia Burov.

It is certain that people will be more pleased to read this news in the trending list as there are no winners in war.

Pray for peace.