China's Corruption: Real Names are Good News

BAI yANSONG

Bai Yansong, the CCTV commentator, discussed the Liu Tienan case on his show last night --《新闻1+1》 20130514 网络举报，打“铁”还需制度“硬”！ with a roundtable of media guests. 

They agreed that the Internet is important to the anti-corruption crackdown, especially when the accusers use their real names. Deputy Managing Editor of the high influential Caijing Magazine Luo Changping did so when he accused Liu Tienan, Deputy Director if The hugely influential National Development and Reform Commission of corruption and posted his evidence on his Sina Weibo account late last year.

The story was given a high profile through coverage by Xinhua, which joined the growing consensus in  Real-name whistleblowing fuels China's online anti-corruption efforts:

The power of Chinese netizens as an anti-corruption force has been demonstrated once again as a senior economic policy maker was removed from his post after his alleged indiscretions were reported by a journalist on the Internet...

The landmark downfall of Liu suggested the ruling party welcomes netizens to join the anti-corruption campaign in a rational, legal way and encourages them to report officials' wrongdoing under their real names, according to Zhou Shuzhen, a politics professor with Renmin University of China.

From April 19, a number of major news and commercial portals have provided links on their homepages to official tip-off websites of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the Party's organization department, as well as the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Land and Resources...

A statement on the portals promotes the use of real names by whistleblowers, warning against fabricated reports, fake evidence and framings. "Those who slander others will be seriously dealt with and even be held legally responsible," it reads.

Though the role of the Internet in fighting corruption has proved effective, some false or malicious tip-offs offered by anonymous netizens have harmed innocent people, tarnishing the victims' reputations and breaching their privacy, pointed out Xin Ming, a professor with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.

Luo Changping has just published a collection of Caijing's corruption stories with some previously-unpublished revelations. More ominously for corrupt officials who once felt themselves 'far from the Emperor, under a vast sky', the horizon shrank when officials from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Supreme People's court jointly wrote the preface.

Wouldn't it be great if something like that happened in our countries?