Internet crusaders force accountability on China's officials
Xinhua and Staff Reporter 2012-12-08 09:13
China's officials are increasingly being held to account by the power of the internet. (Photo/Xinhua)
A number of officials have been removed from their posts due to corruption or misconduct after investigations by disciplinary authorities. In all cases, the officials were exposed by internet users who found the initial clues that prompted their investigations.
Chinese netizens are embracing "online anti-corruption" as a sign of the country's endeavor to fight wrongdoing.
POWER OF THE INTERNET
The latest official to be exposed by internet users was Yuan Zhanting, mayor of northwestern city of Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province.
Yuan was exposed by netizen Zhou Lubao on Monday to have shown up at various public events wearing pricey watches, the most expensive estimated up to 200,000 yuan (US$32,000).
The provincial disciplinary authorities have promised to look into the case, which resembles that of Yang Dacai, a work safety official in neighboring Shaanxi province who was sacked in September after internet users posted photos of him wearing luxury timepieces that he could not afford on his legitimate salary.
In October, Cai Bin, an urban management official in southern Guangdong province, was dismissed from his post after online postings said that he owned 22 houses.
The most lurid scandal so far is Lei Zhengfu, a district head in southwest China's Chongqing municipality, for whom a video of him having sex with a woman at a hotel led to his sacking within a few days of it being leaked online.
The internet showed its teeth as early as 2009, when Zhou Jiugeng, a former real estate management official in Nanjing, was sentenced to 11 years in jail for bribery. It followed an investigation that was spurred by online photos showing him smoking cigarettes of exorbitant prices.
ECHOING THE TOP
Recent exposures of official wrongdoing have also been helped by the central government, which has vowed to combat corruption. The Communist Party leadership has warned that corruption could lead to the collapse of the party and the fall of the state.
Xi Jinping, newly elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said in a speech after the 18th National Congress that the party had to solve problems such as "corruption, being divorced from the people, going through formalities and bureaucracy."
Experts said that China's fight with corruption, with enthusiastic participation of netizens, has entered a new stage and the undertaking needs legal and institutional guarantee.
The outcry of internet users demanding justice from the government has also forced the party's disciplinary authorities to combat corruption in a more proactive way.
Authorities in Guangdong province announced this week that they will launch a pilot regulation that will require local officials to disclose their assets, as well as those of their relatives, to a certain amount of people.
A spokesman with the Guangzhou Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection, Mei Heqing, said authorities are working on a corruption prevention information system that will integrate data from various government departments to find clues about corrupt officials.
DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD
Though proving efficient and effective in fighting corruption, "online anti-corruption" however has its limits and sometimes can do harm to innocent people, experts warned. After the case of Cai Bin, an internet posting revealed that Li Yunqing, a retired senior engineer in Guangzhou, owned 24 houses and he came under suspicion for corruption.
An investigation showed however that Li, neither a party member nor an official, owned the houses with her son and they had bought them through hard work as well as investment. The incident left Li angry, as her personal information had been leaked to the internet.
Zhang Youde, head of the Social Management School, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said internet muckrakers should bear legal responsibility if they cross the line and violate the privacy of others.
Zhang said legislation should be put in place to rein in the negative effects brought to society by internet crusaders.
