Just as Sina Weibo appeared set on the world stage, it is about to pull the red carpet and leave an estimated 8 million overseas users who have taken to its Twitter-like service high and dry. These include international VIPs, such as Microsoft's Bill Gates, actor Tom Cruise and actress Emma Watson, and tennis player Maria Sharapova.

Come March 16, hundreds of millions of Sina Weibo micro-bloggers will have to register with their real names and Chinese ID numbers.

Obviously, foreign nationals don't have Chinese ID numbers, so presumably they will be cut off from the service. Or, perhaps an exception will be made, at which point I can only imagine how many millions of Chinese will claim they are foreigners, too.