Trudeau kicks off China trip with visit to social media giant Sina Weibo’s HQ

BEIJING – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has started the first day of his four day trip to China with a visit to the headquarters of the country’s most popular social media company, Sina Weibo.

More than 200 cellphone toting millennials greeted him on a Monday morning visit to the headquarters of Sino Corporation, which owns Weibo.

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It was part of an attempt to promote Canada as a tourist destination and to launch the 2018 year of tourism between the two countries.

READ MORE: Is Canada getting set to launch formal trade talks with China? ‘That’s the objective,’ says Bains

Trudeau is taking part in a panel discussion at the home of the Chinese microblogging platform that has become more popular than Twitter.

Trudeau is to meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang later in the day at Beijing’s opulent Great Hall of the People and trade is sure to be discussed.

Canada and China have yet to announce the start of formal free trade talks, but have engaged in a long round of exploratory discussions that has taxed China’s patience.