Microblogging of officials, gov't agencies increases

The number of microblog accounts verified as managed by government officials or departments on China's four major websites reached 50,561 by the end of 2011, according to a report unveiled on Wednesday.

The amount of governmental microblog accounts had increased more than seven fold from the beginning of the year, according to the report conducted by the Chinese Academy of Governance (CAG).

The four major websites that the report refers to are www.sina.com.cn, www.qq.com, www.people.com.cn and www.xinhuanet.com which provide Twitter-like microblogging services.

Among all the government microblog accounts, 32,358 were managed by government agencies and the Communist Party of China (CPC) organs, and 18,203 were verified as being run by government officials, the report said.

The report found that China's public security system, or the police force, was more active than other government agencies and its microblog accounts made up 47 percent of the total.

The Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, drug control office of Baise city in southwest Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and information office of Chengdu city government were listed as the top three influential government microbloggers, according to the report.

Zhejiang, Guangdong and Jiangsu ranked the top three provincial-level administrations in terms of the amount of microblog accounts verified as being managed by their government departments.

Heilongjiang, Beijing and Jiangsu ranked the top three provincial-level administrations in terms of the amount of government officials' microblog accounts.

Wang Yimin, vice director of the CAG's E-governance research center, said that the report was the first of its kind to be conducted by a third-party academic institute in China.