Smartphones added to the anti-graft fight

Smartphones are now a tool to fight graft. The Party's top discipline authority launched a "one-button report" app for smartphones last Friday. The new app allows people to submit photos and videos of Party members and civil servants suspected of violating the Party discipline and laws. Not surprisingly it has proved very popular. The top discipline watchdog received nearly 700 reports on the first day, accounting for about two-thirds of the overall number of reports it receives each day via the Internet.

Reporting officials' suspected misconduct to the discipline inspection authority is only the first step. The authority must have enough people to classify the huge amounts of reports, transfer them to relevant departments, conduct investigations, resolve the case, and give feedback to the whistle-blowers. Pressing one button on a smartphone entails much more than that.

Wang Jingya, a columnist at Qianlong.com, June 22