Government sponsored blogs attract millions of followers

China had more than 170,000 microblogs run by government bodies and officials by the end of 2012, two and a half times more than 2011, said a report released by the China Academy of Governance on Wednesday.

The study by the academy's E-Government Research Center said Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces top the list of government microblogs, while Beijing, Henan and Heilongjiang had the most officials running their own microblogs.

"Government microblogs help involve the public in the decision making through micro-interviews, micro-seminars, opinion collecting and feedback," the center said in an e-mail to the Global Times.

Data was collected from microblog services including Sina, Tencents, People's Daily Online and Xinhua. The top 100 blogs opened by government bodies and the 100 blogs created by officials had an average of 2 million online followers, and their postings received a daily average of over 300 comments.

The most popular government microblog account was Shanghai Release, run by the Information Office of Shanghai Municipal Government, which feeds local news and has nearly 3.3 million followers.

It was followed by microblogs run by Baise anti-narcotics office in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and by the publicity department of the CPC Luoyang Committee in Henan Province.

Wei Wuhui, former chief operating officer with the website BlogBus, said microblogs have increased communication between the government and the public, which used to be ineffective and difficult.

"It's faster to release information on microblogs and it's easier to collect comments," Wei said. "It's also helpful for government to publicize themselves in a down-to-earth way."

Among the top 10 microblogs created by government officials, most are police officers. The top blog is run by Wang Yusong, a deputy director of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League.