Online social media platforms enable an individual or agency to communicate interactively and exchange of opinion. Twitter is a very popular platform worldwide for the exchange of opinions. The chapter tries to identify the effectiveness of social media diplomacy and effectiveness of the communication made on Twitter. The study wants to identify the role of Twitter in maintaining the international relations between India and China. There are three key factors that can be identified as the basis of the relationship. Those are business, boarder tension, and the cultural exchange. The study has taken two Twitter handles of Sun Weindong, Chinese Ambassador to India, @China_Amb_India, and India in China, Embassy of India Beijing, @EOIBeijing, for the analysis. The discourse analysis method and content analysis have been adopted by accessing Twitter data and news contents of the study. The study also investigates the impact on the users presenting the word cloud. This study shows a new path in the area of open diplomacy.
Top1. Introduction: Sino-Indian Diplomacy At A Crossroad
India and China are rising giants of Asia. Both are the world’s most populous countries and fastest-growing major economies. The far-reaching growth in China and India’s global diplomatic and economic influence has also enhanced the significance of their bilateral relationship. China and Asia's growing superpowers are China and India (Halmstad, 2012). These are the two most populated countries in the world with the fastest-growing major economies. The significance of China and India's bilateral relationship has been further heightened by the far-reaching rise of their worldwide political and economic power. For thousands of years, China and India, two of the oldest civilizations on Earth, have coexisted peacefully. The attempts by both nations to rekindle diplomatic, cultural, and economic relations have been successful. China has become India's top commercial partner, and both nations have made an effort to deepen their military and strategic ties. In the current state of the world economy, the economic link between two countries is regarded as one of the most important bilateral relationships. The diplomatic relations between India and China reached their 70th anniversary in the year 2020. But the relationship between the two has become weaker rather than stronger in the mentioned year. This happened firstly, for COVID- 19 pandemic and secondly, after the death of 20 Indian Army personnel in Galwan (Rao, 2020) when the Indian and Chinese armies confront each other after 45 years.
In the mid of April 2020; Indian satellite and human intelligence respectively inform the Indian Government about the existence of near about 2500 army personnel rehearsing war at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). On 5 May 2020; the Indo – Chinese troops first near Pyongyang Lake and on 9 May 2020; the first clash between the Indo –Chinese army took place at Nakula Pass and several Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured. Since then, military tensions on Indo – China border have been rising till August of the same year. Talks with the National Security Advisor, Foreign Minister S. Jayshankar and The Indian Ambassador to Beijing began with the Chinese Government. When asked by India about China’s aggression policy, China said that India is adopting an aggression policy as mentioned by Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said in 2019 in his speech. Wang Xianfeng who has been found as a press officer at the Chinese mission in Islamabad tweeted that China and Pakistan's sovereignty has been questioned by India's activities, which include altering the status quo of Kashmir unilaterally and escalating regional tensions. These acts have also complicated relations between China and India and between India and Pakistan (Laskar, 2020).
It is noteworthy that despite all this, the government of India (GOI) is promoting through its various social media and television that everything is calm at LAC. ‘Global Times’ a leading English daily of China wrote Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again demonstrated the great importance he places on diplomacy through social media accounts by wishing Chinese Premier Li Keqiang a happy 60th birthday on his SinaWeibo account.
From Social to Digital: A Paradigm Shift?
Freedom of the internet and the online media, digital world has changed the facets of public diplomacy over the years. It is more open and transparent now as Tom Fletcher, retired British foreign diplomat describes it as ‘Naked diplomat’ (Fletcher, 2016). Foreign Diplomacy in the age of social media is leaving its protected past, to become much more interactive, totally networked and more people centric. In the time of ongoing conflict between India and China, these nations are becoming global examples of employing social media in fostering communication. Even western counterparts of global powers like the United States are also using their social media diplomacies to make a new international stature. Digital Diplomacy, the most modern iteration of diplomacy has further enhanced the speed and extended the reach of public diplomacy. The ability to engage in a two-way conversation on a real-time basis has brought diplomacy out of the closed doors right onto the streets. India, the world’s largest democracy, has been quick to understand and appreciate the potential of social media as a tool to pursue foreign policy goals. The recent election of Mr. Modi as the Prime Minister has given a huge fillip to the social media engagement by the Indian diplomats. Consular and cultural diplomacy quite evidently benefits from this surge in digital interactions but if used prudently, social media promises to bring substantive long-term foreign policy benefits.