Barack Obama and David Cameron did one with the Danish prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Ellen DeGeneres did one with Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and a host of other stars at the Oscars. Now the Chinese premier and Indian prime minister have become the latest public figures to advertise their friendship in a selfie.

In a rare show of everyman charm from one of China’s most elite politicians, Li Keqiang appeared in a grinning photograph with Narendra Modi on Friday.



Narendra Modi’s selfie with Li Keqiang just broke China’s Great Firewall http://t.co/lKLKLBH01L pic.twitter.com/WRZJAX8jEE — Quartz (@qz) May 15, 2015

Modi, who is visiting China this week to boost economic ties and discuss a persistent border dispute, is known for being at ease with social media, and has a large following on Twitter.

However, such spontaneous online displays are rare for Chinese leaders, where discussion of politicians’ personal lives is taboo and details such as their birth dates are considered a state secret.



The selfie, which shows the pair at a historical site smiling shoulder to shoulder, with Li squinting slightly in the sunlight, was posted on Modi’s account on Weibo, the Chinese microblogging site. He spent the day in talks with Li during his three-day trip and is set to travel to Shanghai on Saturday.



Modi joined Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, ahead of the trip, prompting a flurry of mostly sceptical messages from the Chinese public.

China’s leadership has experimented with more unscripted interactions in recent years. The president, Xi Jinping, surprised residents near a popular Beijing shopping street when he took a stroll there last February.

He also astonished customers at a modest steamed bun shop by turning up, paying for his own food and making small talk with other patrons.

Many Weibo users reacted with delight to the two leaders’ selfie, while others wondered why China’s leaders had no social media presence.

One wrote: “Wouldn’t it be great if Premier Li had his own Weibo? Then we could respond to him directly.”