China's 2.3 million military personnel have been banned from opening blogs, creating websites or homepages, or advertising on "lonely hearts" pages, state media reported Saturday.
The new People's Liberation Army regulations are aimed at preventing sensitive information from being disclosed online, the state-run Beijing News reported.
"It means soldiers cannot open blogs on the internet no matter (whether) he or she does it in the capacity of a soldier or not," Wan Long, a political commissar within the army, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.
"The internet is complicated and we should guard against online traps," Wan said.
Earlier this month, the government defended its use of internet controls to block websites and keyword searches deemed sensitive.
"The Chinese government attaches great importance to protecting the safe flow of internet information, actively guides people to manage websites in accordance with the law and use the internet in a wholesome and correct way," said a government White Paper setting out policies for management of the internet.