Sina Weibo, China's answer to Twitter, said it had deleted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's account at the request of the Indian embassy, as tensions between the two countries continue to simmer over a border skirmish. Since posting on Sina Weibo the first time in 2015 during a visit to China, Mr Modi has been an infrequent user of the Chinese
Social Media platform. He had more than 200,000 followers and 100 posts before the account was shut. Sina Weibo announced the closure of the account late on Wednesday and the removal comes a few days after
India banned dozens of Chinese apps, including Sina Weibo and ByteDance's TikTok, following the border clash between the two nations. The Indian embassy in
Beijing did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment. Mr Modi was among a handful of foreign leaders with a Weibo account. Others include Prime Minister
Boris Johnson,
Justin Trudeau of
Canada, and Nicolas Maduro of
Venezuela. Notably, Mr Modi revealed the birth dates of both Chinese President
Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang by wishing them "Happy Birthday" on Weibo. The discussion of senior leaders' private lives is extremely rare in
China and the exact birth dates of most of them are not revealed publicly. In contrast, Chinese leaders are rarely active on social media. Foreign social media platforms such as
Facebook and
Twitter are blocked in China. READ MORE: China annexes 60sqkm of India in Ladakh as simmering tensions erupt between two superpowers