The Palace Museum's efforts at a cover-up before admitting that a priceless porcelain dish had been broken by accident make people believe the public would've been fooled if not for Internet users' exposure and media reports, said commentator Zhang Tianpan in Nanfang Daily.

As for the public, it was not the accident itself that cannot be forgiven but the museum's practice of trying to cover up the incident, which was lame and arrogant and irritate the public's anger, Zhang wrote.

In the information era, dealing with information seems to have become the Achilles' heel of many institutions and finally turns into a sword of Damocles hanging over their credibility, he said.

The constant arrogant responses, including insisting a character on a flag it gave the Beijing police bureau was right before finally admitting it was wrong, are akin to what the Red Cross Society of China and the Ministry of Railways did in scandals.

The practices of these organizations have shown the public the illness of China's administration culture, which has affected philanthropic organizations, cultural institutions and government departments.

The illness makes them want to treat incidents likely to incite public anger as a family matter and wish to deal with it internally. Thus an apology or an admission for their wrongdoings from the start would be very difficult for them.

Ingrained bureaucracy also make the organizations think they were hurt and misunderstood when they are criticized for their lame skills at dealing with public anger, Zhang wrote.