Journo takes on energy chief (3)

Local authorities have been reacting to corruption claims more quickly than before.

On Thursday, the Economy and Nation Weekly, a magazine under the Xinhua News Agency, reported that Song Jianguo, a vice director of the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, is suspected of manipulating car-plate lottery and is being investigated by Party discipline authorities. The Beijing Police denied the report.

According to statistics from news portal sohu.com, at least 17 officials have been reported to discipline authorities by mistresses, journalists, Web users and inside sources and placed under investigation, after the 18th Party congress vowed to "give the people more power to supervise the government."

However, experts said the country cannot sole rely on the Internet to fight corruption.

"The fact that officials have to go online to disclose their fellow colleagues' misconduct indicates that a smooth channel to report to Party discipline authorities is absent. And the practice of officials protecting each other when they make mistakes is still rampant," said Xu Xianglin, associate dean with the School of Government, Peking University.

Ma Dehuai, vice dean of the China University of Science and Law, told the People's Daily that anti-corruption efforts cannot rely on chance events such as rows with mistresses, but require innovative top-down design and effective implementation of anti-corruption mechanisms.