Government and Policy

Officials slow in adapting to Internet revolution

By Lan Tian in Beijing, and Li Yingqing and Guo Anfei in Kunming (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-26 06:53

Caught by the Web

Killed in detention

When Li Qiaoming, a 24-year-old detainee at Jinning county detention center, Yunnan province, was found dead in February last year, center officials blamed it on an accident during a game of hide-and-seek. Netizens were not convinced and cried foul. The provincial authority eventually invited a panel of netizens to investigate with local police. The provincial procuratorate later announced Li was beaten to death by fellow inmates. The director of the center and vice-director of the county police bureau were sacked, while three inmates and two wardens were prosecuted.

Blogger arrested

Wang Shuai, 24, a Shanghai blogger, was detained for eight days in February last year on charges of defamation after he posted an article accusing officials in Lingbao, Henan province, of illegally acquiring farmland. The city government dropped the charges and Qin Yuhai, director of Henan provincial public security bureau, made a full apology to Wang last April in an interview with people.com.cn. The blogger received almost 800 yuan ($120) in compensation.

Identity theft

Luo Caixia, 22, a student at Tianjin Normal University, used a tianya.com forum in April to reveal how her identity had been stolen. An investigation found Wang Zhengrong, a police officer in Hunan province, used the woman's identity to enroll his daughter, Luo's former classmate Wang Jiajun, at a university in 2004. The teaching certificate issued to Wang Jiajun - under Luo's identity - was revoked and Luo has filed a lawsuit. Wang Zhengrong, who had already served jail time for taking bribes, altogether received a four-year imprisonment sentence last November.

Officials stabbed

Deng Yujiao, a 21-year-old pedicurist at a hotel in Badong county, Hubei province, stabbed two officials - killing one - while resisting their sexual advances in May last year. She was arrested and charged with murder. Netizens, angered by the police's treatment of the suspect, flocked to Internet forums. Prosecutors eventually reduced the charges to "intentional assault", on which she was found guilty but received no prison sentence due to her mental state. Analysts said the court took the opinions of netizens into consideration before delivering the verdict. The official who survived the incident was sacked. Deng has since changed her name and has taken a job with a local television station.

Living in luxury

Discipline officials launched an investigation into Zhou Jiugeng, former director of the Jiangning district real estate management bureau in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, after netizens posted pictures of him driving a Cadillac, smoking expensive cigarettes and sporting a Vacheron Constantin watch worth about 100,000 yuan ($14,000). The discovery he had accepted more than 1 million yuan and HK$110,000 ($14,000) in bribes from contractors was met with little surprise. He was sacked and sentenced to 11 years in prison, where he is now writing a book about life as an official.

Slap in the face

Netizens exposed Yu Fuqin, Party secretary of a hospital attached to Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, for slapping a 19-year-old tour guide of Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu province, last October. When questioned by security staff, her husband, Lieutenant Colonel Chen Wei, said: "We are of high-level positions, so don't bother to call the police." Three days later, a statement from the corps' information office published on tianya.com stated that Yu and Chen had been removed from their posts.

Top prosecutor resigns

Discipline authorities censured Liu Lijie, chief prosecutor for the impoverished Arun banner in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, after netizens posted information about how she drove a Volkswagen Touareg SUV worth 780,000 yuan ($115,000) and worked in a luxurious office building. An investigation discovered she had breached official rules by borrowing the SUV from a private enterprise. She later resigned.

China Daily