The People's Liberation Army will loosen its tight controls on the use of cellphones by service members, the PLA General Staff Headquarters, said last week.

Issues pertaining to cellphone use by personnel of the PLA have attracted a lot of attention and are a difficult problem in service members' management, the statement said in announcing the revisions.

"Along with the evolution of information technology, service members' demand for information has grown," the statement said. "Responding to this situation, we will make some changes to the current stipulations on the use of cellphones to meet service members' reasonable needs."