Bribe-reporting websites in China get mixed

"I paid a bribe of 500 yuan (77 U.S. dollars) to local traffic police getting them to excuse me a 2,000-yuan fine," said a post on the Chinese bribe-reporting website woxinghuiliao.com. The idea of setting up the website was inspired by the Indian anti-corruption website ipaidabribe.com, said a source who only identified himself by his surname Chen. Chen runs woxinghuiliao.com in his spare time, as he currently works for a foreign company during the day. He is supported by several volunteers, who came to him after discovering his website. Chen's website went online on June 11. It encourages netizens to report their own experiences with corruption and bribery. He said that in addition to rooting out corruption, his original intention was to create an outlet for ordinary citizens to express their frustration regarding bribery and other corrupt practices. The website is just one of several bribe-reporting websites that have popped up in China recently. At least two websites woxinghuile.info and cobuu.com and seven online forums with similar themes were launched. Online posts regarding the corrupt practices of some government officials have helped China's anti-graft authorities to investigate and solve corruption cases in years past. In October 2009, Zhou Jiugeng, a former local real estate management official in east China's Jiangsu Province, was sentenced to 11 years in jail for taking more than one million yuan in bribes. Zhou was targeted after pictures of him wearing a 100,000-yuan Vacheron Constantin watch, smoking expensive cigarettes and driving a Cadillac were circulated online.