After Mexico's 1-0 upset of Germany on Sunday (June 17), many fans of the four-time World Cup champion were devastated. In light of this, the police (gong'an) department of Jiangning District, Nanjing, China posted this on Weibo:

The Weibo post translates to "Reminder from the police: Fans of Germany should keep calm. It's only a game. Don't get too emotional and don't jump off the building. After all, there are still two more matches."

The Jiangning police also addressed Brazil fans three hours later:

"May Brazil fans also refer to the message below. Thank you." they wrote, quoting the post to Germany fans.

Persistent viral poster

The Jiangning police Weibo is known from its viral posts. With the slogan "follow reliable police uncles, follow the reliable Jiangning police online" displaying prominently on their Weibo, it has over two million fans.

It is among the most popular government Weibo pages, according to the 2016 China Government Weibo Distribution Development Report.

Other viral posts include those telling students taking the gaokao — China's national university entrance examination — that police motorcycles are standing by to give free rides to students who have gone to the wrong examination centre, who have left their entry proofs at home or those who are running late.

The Jiangning police is also famous for its efforts to bust rumours, something China's Cyberspace Administration mandates web platforms to do in order to prevent disinformation from spreading.

For example, a Weibo user asked the Jiangning police back in 2015 whether a bizarre story that circulated in WeChat was true. The story was this:

A woman in a room had some wine and she went asleep. When she woke up, she found herself nude in a bathtub full of ice. Beside her was her phone and a paper slip with "Dial 120 or else you would die!" written on it. After she called 120 [China's equivalent of 999], the doctor suggested to check her back. The doctor found two 9-inch cuts on the lower back. The doctor asked her to lie back into the bathtub of ice immediately and not to move. The doctor went immediately to seek the emergency services. Apparently, her kidneys were stolen. The two cuts were left when her kidneys were taken out.

The Jiangning police posted this to show how ridiculously long 9-inch wounds would be:

They also said very bluntly that no one would have survived a double kidney removal: "You know what there are only two kidneys in a human body, right? That's already two cuts, what's the point of calling 120? You would've been dead!"

So who's this "police uncle" running this official police Weibo?

Apparently, it's just this one guy behind the Jiangning police Weibo:

His name is Wang Haiding, a police officer who majored in police dog training in the police academy. According to Youth.cn, Wang began his career as a traffic police. His job as a Weibo administrator for the Jiangning Police Department started in 2010, just a year after Sina Weibo was launched.

At the beginning, the Jiangning police Weibo did not attract much traffic. It was just a typical government social media page with updates on police work and announcements. His experience with Internet forums since secondary school helped him understand the language of the web, which is shaped mostly by the young.

In a post dated April 2011, Wang used Internet slang "youmuyou" (有木有) instead of the normal Chinese phrase "youmeiyou" (有没有), both meaning "have you?" The post was shared nine times and had five comments. That might not seem much, but compared to other police Weibo pages at the time, it was a record.

Seven years later, Wang has made the Jiangning police page one of the most popular Weibo pages.

Why is the government using more social media?

Government departments in China are trying to find more ways to connect with the younger population.

Not all are as successful as Jiangning Police Department, however. The 2016 Weibo report on government pages notes that successful pages get more successful while those without many visitors tend to not gain more views.

Many police department Weibo pages do not have much traction. Government pages, especially those belonging to higher-level government departments, generally retain an official tone. The Communist Youth League Weibo page, for example, reposts government announcements, but also occasionally share cute panda videos and light news in attempt to increase traffic.

The Chinese government has been trying in recent years to stay relevant with younger Chinese. One of its first attempts includes a short cartoon named "How Leaders Were Tempered?" shared on video-sharing site Youku in 2013. The cartoon was the first time a Chinese leader is depicted as a cartoon character in mainland Chinese media. It reached more than a million views in just two days. The video was made by "Studio on Fuxing Road", which is controlled by the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party, according a The Wall Street Journal report.

The same studio made a music video in 2015 to promote China's 13th Five-Year Plan, which outlines China's general development every five years.

The Chinese government has traditionally projected an old, bureaucratic image. Government departments like Jiangning Police Department are trying to change that perception. While some attempts are trying to convey serious content in a casual manner, others are more superficial (like posting cute panda videos). But no one can deny that light-hearted videos and dissing football teams do attract young Chinese netizens.

Top image by Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil