Shortcuts to fighting corruption

When Han Guosen decided to report the corrupt misuse of public lands by a village leader in Hebei Province's city of Zhuozhou, he encountered a network of bureaucracy. He spent hours searching for a website where he could file his complaint.

"It was a long, time-consuming process," Han told the Global Times.

In theory, the online process for Han and many others seeking to report corruption became easier on Friday, with the addition of a link to report corruption on China's major online news portals.

The hyperlink, which says "welcome your supervision, please report truthfully," has been placed on mainstream news websites such as xinhuanet.com, people.com.cn, qq.com and sina.com.cn.

However, as yet, what happens after people submit their complaints remains shrouded in mystery, prompting some veteran whistle-blowers to question whether the new links are much more than a makeover that would require real transparency to be useful.

Behind the link

After clicking on the link and accepting the terms of use, whistle-blowers are directed to a page listing the graft reporting sites of five government agencies - the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Central Organization Department (COD) of the CPC Central Committee, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Land and Resources.

According to the terms of use, each agency handles different kinds of graft. The CCDI, for example, deals with claims regarding Party organizations and members who violate Party or government regulations, and the COD deals with complaints regarding the hiring and management of officials above the county- and division-levels. The terms also stipulate that tipsters must offer genuine evidence and report the issue objectively, and suggest they file complaints under their real names.