Shanghai govt microblogs attract 30m followers

SHANGHAI - Two thousand microblogs established by multiple government offices in Shanghai have attracted around 30 million followers, the municipal government said Thursday.

The official microblog of Shanghai's municipal government, launched in November 2011, has 4.5 million followers, the government said.

The influence of microblogs will help improve transparency and public supervision of government affairs, said Han Zheng, the city's mayor.

He urged government entities to use microblogs to communicate openly in order to better serve the public.

About 250 million Chinese were using microblogs as of December 2011, according to official data.