Following the lead of a number of its ambassadors and embassies in Africa, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched a new Twitter account on Monday as part of a more assertive effort by Beijing to “re-shape the narrative” as to how Chinese foreign policy is communicated internationally.

If the tone of Tweets by China’s diplomats in Africa who started posting on the social network earlier this year is anything to go by, we should expect to see a more forceful, direct communications style by the Chinese government than the more conservative approach they’ve employed until now.