A screenshot of Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai's first Tweet Photo: Cui Tiankai's Twitter account

The opening of Chinese Ambassador to the US and the Embassy's Twitter accounts is an attempt to better communicate with people from different sectors in the US, which will improve mutual understanding, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said at a routine press conference on Tuesday.

The remarks came after Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai sent his first tweet on Monday, posting "I'm pleased to join Twitter and look forward to engaging with more American people. Feel free to follow me…" He also encouraged people to follow the Embassy's newly open Twitter account to "stay looped in."

The Embassy sent its first tweet the same day highlighting that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the the China-US diplomatic relationship.

Net users welcomed Cui, hoping to hear his voice on current issues. "I think it's important for you to clarify lots of rumors and bias in Twitter about China," posted one Twitter user.  

Cui is not the first Chinese diplomat to join the platform. Li Bijian, chief of mission at the Chinese Embassy in India, also has a Twitter account and reposts news about China to the world.  

Another active diplomat on social media is Zhao Lijian, deputy chief of mission at the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad, who joined the platform in 2010 and now has 187,800 followers. Zhao has posted short videos about life in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to combat rumors about the region.

His Twitter account received a wave of attention in May when he posted pictures of a carved-up apple together with Huawei and Apple logos. 

"It has been just revealed why @realDonaldTrump hated a private company from China so much," he joked. "Look at the logo of Huawei. It has cut APPLE into pieces..."