China's Communist Youth League opens Twitter account

The Communist Youth League of China has opened a Twitter account – CYL @ccylchina – and last week sent its first tweets, just as Beijing has been stepping up its efforts to prevent the public from accessing the social media platform and viewing other online content it deems inappropriate. It set up the account earlier this month and published the first of its 10 tweets to date on Thursday. The message said the aim of the account was to “deliver information about the league and on issues of interest to young people,” the South China Morning Post reports. All of the tweets were written in Puthongua. Shanghai-based political commentator Chen Daoyin said the opening of the account was the latest indication that Beijing wanted to expand its “ideological battlefield” beyond national borders. “Beijing is no longer satisfied with just exporting Chinese culture. Now it wants to be able to influence public opinion overseas,” he said.