China bans its troops from making friends online

China has banned its two-million strong military from using social networking and matchmaking websites "to prevent the leak of sensitive information". Chinese soldiers have also been barred from using the internet outside the army without permission.

The soldiers have been banned from using the internet to make friends, as authorities seek to prevent sensitive information being revealed, the People's Liberation Army Daily reported.

The new rules also ban them from watching or listening to political programmes from overseas media.

A joint notice issued by the General Staff Headquarters and the General Political Department of the PLA said that the entire army and the People's Armed Police  should tighten administration over the practice of soldiers making friends online.

The measures are aimed at preventing violations of law and to protect military information from being leaked, it said.

According to it, four types of websites have become popular among soldiers which included social networking, matchmaking, blogs and WAP websites for mobile phones in recent years.

Since social networking and matchmaking websites usually require users to submit personal information such as occupation, address and contact details, soldiers risk revealing the locations of military camps and their contacts when logging in and communicating with people online, it said.

There have also been cases of soldiers who have revealed military secrets by uploading personal photos online either in uniform or during military training, which could be used by "enemy agents" to gain military intelligence, the newspaper said.

For soldiers who are about to retire from the army, posting resumes online for job-hunting purposes is also dangerous as they may contain military intelligence, it said.

According to the Regulations on Routine Service of the PLA, soldiers are not allowed to use mass media for matchmaking or making friends.

Though China banned overseas online social networking sites like, Facebook and Twitter, the country's over 470 million internet users have developed the Chinese  versions of such networks like qq.com which have tens and millions of subscribers.

"It's a prevalently accepted regulation around the world to limit the use of the internet by soldiers as the internet security situation worsens," He Tongqing, a lawyer in Beijing, told the paper.

"Once you expose your military identity, online spies will make you a target for obtaining military information through various and advanced technology," He said.

The joint instruction called for soldiers to improve their consciousness of defence and self-discipline, and said stern action would be taken to punish those who have revealed military secrets through the internet, it said.