When the Cops Start Tweeting on Weibo…

I have to say, to the average expat, the cops here in the PRC might end up as being a little fearsome. It’s these guys who decide whether or not you’re allowed into the country, and if you’re slapped with a thousand-plus RMB fine for speeding, these guys pocket the whole thing (allegedly!). When I lost my iPhone in Shanghai, I spent a whole hour declaring the loss to the cops, who used a little bit of backward technology known as pen and paper…

So you can imagine the shock and awe when you stumble upon police that tweet – of course, on sanctioned Weibo accounts – in straight-forward people language.

Enter, then, Duan Lang, a police offer in Jiujiang, in southeastern China’s Jiangxi province. Officially known as Duan Xingyan, this cop doesn’t appear to be the average cop with official-speak coming out his mouth. Apart from his “average policeman” photo with the ubiquitous Sina Verified badge, he looks like just about everyone else out there.

Just last month, Sina (NASDAQ:SINA) launched a Government Edition of its Weibo microblogging platform that helps the Chinese government to get online and tweet to its people. It essentially has the same layout as the more popular brand pages. And this is what’s helping the police – and other agencies – get onto Weibo.

As I found out from local news sites citing the Guangzhou Daily, Duan is remarkable for not tweeting in official-speak (in a People’s Republic where all other officials are). The Jiujiang Police he still works for still channels “police language” on its “public” account, but his own verified account, on which he tweets for up to five hours a day, is remarkably civilian-ish in language. One of his Weibo virtual badges tells that he’s a big fan of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (aka Da S). (You’d hardly expect that from the average officer!) Of course, being inside the system, so to speak, Duan’s got a few things he can’t tweet about. For example — sexy pictures, or other illegal content.

But outside of unconstitutional content, there’s a lot that Duan’s tweeting about. China’s mountains of government cars is a contentious issue to which Duan has a pretty sharp point of view: these cars can no longer fall outside of legal supervision. Next up? Get the law to control them. Churn out a new government car law. “Even if you were just born when government vehicle reforms were just being floated, by now, you’d have grown up,” as he tweets. Precisely: the issue’s been on the table for just about 18 years.

And while Duan can’t immediately take away those traffic jams, what he can take away is that cold official-speak from government officials. In a nation where the state-sanctioned seven o’clock news has been plagued by rather clueless gov-speak for the past three decades, it sure is a breath of fresh air.