CHINA:A Chinese government website that encourages citizens to report corruption was overwhelmed on its first day online and crashed after too many people logged on to report graft.
The Communist Party acknowledges corruption as the country's most destabilising political problem. Many cadres and public officials work without any oversight and president Hu Jintao has launched a massive anti-corruption campaign. In September, the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention was formed.
However, citizens are slow to blow the whistle on widescale corruption in public life for fear of retribution, so the prospect of reporting online piqued public interest and the corruption bureau's official website was swamped by public interest, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.
An official told the paper the "number of visitors was too large".
Once the site was up and running, comments on bulletin boards included sour-grapes accusations levelled at driving schools, alleging links between testers and government officials, and criticism of the website itself for being not fancy enough.
The former head of the Shanghai Communist party, Chen Liangyu, is facing at least a lengthy prison term for his involvement in a high-profile pension scandal in Shanghai that saw dozens of people arrested.
In July, Zheng Xiaoyu, one-time director of China's state food and drug administration, was executed for taking bribes relating to drug testing.
In August this year a video game featuring an incorruptible warrior who tortures and kills the mistresses and families of corrupt officials, called The Incorruptible Warrior, was a huge hit.
China is planning to draft a five-year plan to tackle corruption, according to local media reports from the decision-making politburo.
