The government’s new media presence is an important means to establish a service-oriented government, through which the Party and government can better serve and connect with people. To promote its orderly and healthy development, the General Office of the State Council, in charge of managing the development of China’s government new media, has released a set of guidelines.

According to the guidelines, by 2022, a coordinated and responsive new media system led by the official website of China’s central government, gov.cn, will be built, which will consist of accounts and applications on Weibo, WeChat and other third-party platforms, and mobile clients developed by administrative organs at different levels.

The government new media should play the role of authoritative platforms to release and interpret information, and convenient platforms to serve and interact with people.

It should also release important policies, and information related to people’s life in a timely manner. In addition, they should be able to promptly respond to public events and to effectively guide public opinions on government affairs.

The guidelines also said that interactive channels between the government and people should be opened up to make sure that people’s reasonable demands will be heard and addressed as soon as possible. The government should collect and analyze people’s opinions and suggestions with the aid of big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, which can help with government’s decision-making.

As service platforms, user experience should be improved, procedures should be simplified, and more government-related services should be offered at mobile applications.

Efforts should also be made to enhance the connection and data-sharing of government new media, websites, and government service halls, which will benefit enterprises and people.

With regard to network security, safety management and confidentiality system should be built and improved to strengthen the safeguarding of the government new media, and network security laws should be enforced strictly. In addition, the government new media should make sure that users’ information cannot be obtained illegally and their rights cannot be damaged.

The General Office of the State Council will monitor and check the government new media of various departments in different regions, and circulate notices.