Chinese govt shuts down anti-graft websites -Governance Now

Chinese govt shuts down anti-graft websites

Four anti-corruption whistle-blowing websites ordered to close down since June 15

PTI | June 24, 2011

The Chinese government has ordered close down of at least four anti-graft whistleblower websites, while firmly ruling out setting up a timetable for officials to declare their assets.

At least four anti-corruption whistleblowing websites have been ordered to close down since June 15, ahead of the 90th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) on July 1, state run Global Times reported.

Websites like woxinghuile.com (I paid a bribe), fanxinghui.com (anti-bribery) and some others have been asked to shut down as they were not registered with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The first official response came on Monday when city prosecutor Luo Shouliang told the Beijing Youth Daily that all the websites were illegal, alleging they may unintentionally help corrupted officials and complicate the work of investigators.

Following the successful Indian example of ipaidabribe.com, a series of websites were launched earlier this month, with woxinghuile.com achieving 50,000 hits on its second day.

Such websites needed guidance to improve the reliability of the information they provide, Wu Yuliang, secretary general and spokesman for the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said at a conference yesterday.

However, Lin Zhe, a law professor at the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, told the Global Times yesterday, "Lack of legal approval was ultimately not the reason for closing down all the sites. The real reason should be their slim effect in cracking down on corruption or possibly causing slander,"

Meanwhile, a top CPC officials had ruled out fixing a timetable for the top officials to declare assets citing technical reasons.

Wu Yuliang, deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the CPC, said that before the asset declaration process, information regarding social credit cover such as loan and credit history of the officials were essential.

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