Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, whose swift appearance at disaster sites has made him one of the nation's most popular figures and earned him the nickname Grandpa Wen, now has a profile on Facebook. It's not clear who set up Wen's profile; the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Council Press Office both told CNN they were not aware of the page. Facebook, one of the Web's most popular social networking sites, allows users to create personal profiles. Fake profiles abound, however, with dozens for President Bush and a handful for Mother Teresa. At least one other profile of Wen exists on the site. By early Wednesday -- just two weeks since the profile's creation on May 14 -- about 14,000 Facebook users had signed on as Wen's "supporters." By comparison, Bush's profile boasted about 11,700 supporters, according to a feature on the site "Browse the Politicians." U.S. presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, led everyone, with 862,000 supporters. The numbers for the Chinese premier reflect the growing popularity of Wen, who's become China's face of grief. Just hours after the earthquake struck on May 12 in southwestern China, Wen traveled to the hardest-hit Sichuan province, consoling and grieving with survivors. More than 67,000 people have been killed in the disaster.http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/28/china.facebook/index.html
No comments:
Post a Comment