Outgoing Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) helicopter pilots watch as a helicopter full of new air force personnel arrives at a ceremony in Hong Kong on Nov. 25, 2007. (Photo : Getty Images)
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force launched its Sina Weibo social media account on Tuesday, following a series of open house events aimed at boosting is public image and marking its 66th founding anniversary on Nov. 11.
Despite having only seven posts as of Wednesday night, more than 6,900 users have followed the account on Sina Weibo, China's biggest social networking website by number of users.
Some of the posts include the story of a daughter of an Air Force officer who died in the line of duty and the announcement that aircraft from the Chinese and Thai armed forces will conduct a joint drill at a military airbase in Thailand starting Thursday to Nov. 30.
In addition to the Sina Weibo account, the Air Force also opened an account on WeChat, China's most popular smartphone messaging app with more than 650 million users.
Eighteen Air Force bases and units were also opened to civilian visitors on Tuesday and Wednesday, attracting tens of thousands of visitors.
Wu Peixin, a military expert based in Beijing, said that the leaders of the PLA now understand the importance of good image and close contact with the public in improving the military's recruitment efforts and boosting public confidence in its capabilities.
Currently, the most popular Sina Weibo account owned by the PLA is that of its official newspaper, the PLA Daily. The account was created in 2011 and now has nearly 9 million followers.
The PLA Navy also opened a micro blog on the website of the state-owned People's Daily newspaper in April.
As of Wednesday, the blog had earned more than 1.9 million followers.
