Ministry of National Defense to initiate social network accounts

A screenshot of the official account for China's Defense Ministry on Sina Weibo, a leading Chinese social network.

The Defense Ministry announced that its accounts on two leading social network platforms will "officially start operations" on Tuesday, a move analysts said will further boost China's transparency on issues of national defense.

Also, the State Council Information Office will hold a press conference regarding the white paper "China's Military Strategy" at 10 am on Tuesday, and a live broadcast will be available through the official accounts, the ministry said in a written statement on its website.

The new accounts - under "the Release of the Ministry of National Defense" - were registered on weibo.com, China's leading social network, and Wechat, China's leading SNS app.

The first post issued earlier on Monday by the ministry's weibo account said "there will be consistent exchanges and interaction".

Ministry spokesmen had previosly interacted with netizens through the official account of the PLA Daily - the newspaper of the People's Liberation Army. Spokesmen Geng Yansheng and Yang Yujun sent a written greeting for lunar new year in 2014 through the PLA Daily weibo account.