Chief of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Beijing Committee, Guo Jinlong, urged government publicity officials to play a leading role in guiding public opinion, the Beijing Daily reported on Wednesday.

"We must consider guiding speeches on the Internet as one of our most important duties in the publicity department and we must take the leading role in this public opinion battleground as soon as possible," Guo said on Tuesday at a government meeting on the media and publicity. 

Guo asked officials to overcome the misconception that Internet content is "unmanageable" and take action by using economic, administrative, legal and educational means to strengthen their presence on cyberspace.

"We need to utilize our experience in social management and expand our influence, both in publicity and management to the Internet and make the cyberspace a clean space," he said.

He recommended that Party members and members of the Communist Youth League should make better use of the Internet to broadcast mainstream voices and promote positive thoughts.

Some 90 percent of China's key websites are located in Beijing and the Internet data flow accounts for more than 70 percent of the total amount in the country, according to Guo. 

Strengthening publicity work, increasing awareness about people's beliefs, especially the Chinese dream, promoting the broadcast of positive voices and implementing the principle that media should be guided by the Party, are the four guidelines that Guo pointed out for government publicity officials at the meeting.

"All district and county governments must consider publicity work one of their top jobs and establish a coordinating mechanism to work with newspapers and media outlets," he said. "Government departments should also release information though Sina Weibo accurately and promptly to obtain the upper hand guiding the public opinion." 

China has cracked down on online rumors over the past few months, which led to the detention of several celebrity bloggers, including Chinese-American investor Xue Charles Bi-Chuen.

Xue, also known online as "Xue Manzi," was detained by Beijing police in August on charges of having group sex with prostitutes.

Wang Gongquan, another venture capitalist, was arrested in October in Beijing on charges of gathering crowds to disturb public order.

Guo also asked officials to implement plans for further reform of cultural institutions in accordance with the spirit of the key Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, which is due to be held in Beijing between November 9 and November 12.