PLA Rocket Force Weibo accounts take off in popularity

Hundreds of thousands of users on Sina Weibo, the Chinese Twitter-like social media platform, have flocked to and followed the two official Weibo accounts newly created on Thursday afternoon by the Chinese People's Liberation Army Rocket Force.

PLA Rocket Force, formerly the Second Artillery Corps, was established on Dec 31, 2015, and serves as the strategic and tactical missile force of China.

It marks the first time for the PLA Rocket Force to open up official Weibo accounts, making the emergence of two at once even more remarkable. One account shared the same name with the force, while another chose the funnier and more down-to-earth name Dongfeng Kuaidi, which means "Eastwind Delivery".

Some netizens made a guess that the former one would be used for releasing official and formal news and the latter for communicating with the sea of Weibo users.

At the time of writing, the account PLA Rocket Force had over 82,000 followers and Dongfeng Kuaidi had 180,000 fans, despite the fact that neither of the accounts had posted any content yet. Meanwhile, the number of followers continues to surge wildly.

Most fans are surprised by the PLA Rocket Force's move to "land" on a social media platform with hundreds of millions of users, due to its air of mystery.

Many of them have said "welcome" to the PLA Rocket Force and could not to wait to learn more about and interact with it on the social media platform they often use in daily life.

The PLA is comprised of the Ground Force, Air Force, Navy, Rocket Force and Strategic Support Force.