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Central Government

Chinese anti-corruption website deluged

By Robin Hicks | 30 June 2009

A web site launched by the Chinese government to enable citizens to blow the whistle on corrupt officials has crashed due to heavy site traffic.

The site (12309.gov.cn), which was set up for Chinese citizens to inform central government about local-level corruption, has received more than the 1000 complaints it was designed to cope with at any one time.

Expected complaints have included reports of bribery, dereliction of duty, unlawful detention, unlawful searches and the illegal coercion of suspects. The support telephone number - 12309 - which was also launched last week (June 23 2009), is still operational.

China’s central government set up a similar number 12388 in 2008, with a web site (www.12388.gov.cn) allowing people to file reports online. It generated 20,000 reports of official abuse last year.

China ranked 72nd in Transparency International’s 2008 table of the world’s least corrupt countries. It ranked 14th for countries in Asia Pacific.

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