Followers of police's microblog account top 10 mln

Chinese police forces are among the most popular on the country's micro-blogging service.

An official account of China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) on Sina Weibo, one of the country's major microblogging services, broke 10 million this week.

It is the first time that a microblog account run by a government body has more than 10 million followers, the MPS said.

The Weibo account, named "Dasiheichusihai" in Chinese, made its debut on Aug. 28, 2011 and focuses mainly on issues immediately related to the people's livelihood. It's drawn huge attention from the public.

"Dasiheichusihai" means cracking down on criminal activities.

The account writes entries concerning food and drug safety, environmental safety, and new reforms, as well as some major incidents.

It often interacts with followers and has been received positively, the MPS said.

In a written instruction released by Legal Daily on Thursday, Chinese security chief Meng Jianzhu urged all judicial and law enforcement agencies to adapt to new media and work at creating more influential accounts on Sina Weibo and WeChat, a popular instant messaging application.

"The success of the account is a reflection of people's concern about food and drug safety and their support to our work in cracking down illegal activities," said Meng.

Police forces have already improved substantially in how they communicate with the public, he said

Police departments at various levels should learn from popular Weibo and Wechat accounts to further develop their new media, Huang Ming, vice minister of the MPS, said during a discussion with members involved in Internet media on Thursday.