Narendra Modi, who has the biggest number of Twitter followers among world leaders after President Barack Obama and Pope Francis, prides himself on his political skills and mastery of social media. But Mr Modi seems to have got more than he bargained for when he ventured online in China ahead of his first official visit to the country this week as Indian prime minister.

Most responses from Chinese netizens to his sortie on the Twitter-like Weibo site were critical, derogatory or even racist, and most referred to a territorial dispute between the two countries over the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China calls South Tibet.

“South Tibet belongs to China, give it back,” was a typical comment after he sent his first Chinese post, saying “Hello China! Looking forward to interacting with Chinese friends through Weibo”. Other comments were less polite. “India is China’s dog,” said one, using a cartoon dog emoticon. “We’ll be your [Weibo] fans if you buy us some curry,” read another.