BEIJING -- Frank Hsieh Chang-ting, a former member of Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said he "relishes a chance of communication" on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo on Wednesday after Sina verified him as "former chairman of the DPP."

Hsieh's followers surged from 13 to more than 53,000 on Wednesday, two weeks after he opened the Weibo account.

"I wish all the homecoming Chinese a sound and safe journey," said Hsieh during the Chinese Lunar New Year, a sign that he wanted to get closer to the netizens across the strait.

Hsieh came to the mainland last October for ancestral worship. His arrival on Sina Weibo received varied responses from netizens, although he is not the first such figure to establish a presence on the microblogging platform.

"Qiuyitaiwan," another Sina Weibo account which belongs to Taiwan's Kuomintang member Chiu Yi, according to its verification, has more than 1.3 million followers.