A face-to-face meeting with former officials jailed for corruption, intended to deter their successors, has sparked debate on whether it will make a difference in the nation's fight against corruption.

It hit the headlines when 54 party chiefs and government leaders in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, met with their former peers to learn a lesson at an anti-corruption center adjoining the Nanjiao Prison on Tuesday.

"It was a good practice. I believe no one would like to commit the same mistakes after being exposed to harsh consequences," said Internet commentator "Tianyaxiaoxiaoke" on the website of the People's Daily.

His opinion was shared on Sohu.com, a leading portal website. "The experience could strike fear into visitors, and make them behave in the future," said one posting.

Li Yongzhong, chief researcher with the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said the meeting, as a warning, could play a positive role in preventing corruption.

Many others, however, deemed it "just a show" rather than a savvy anti-corruption strategy.

"The experience itself was not nearly enough to help officials resist the lure of money," said commentator Zhang Li in an article published on the Beijing Evening News, a popular local newspaper.

Visitors said they were deeply impressed after listening to the tearful confession of a former middle-ranking official, who is serving a 10-year jail term for taking bribes in 2005. He blamed his crime on a "distortion of values."

Seeing pictures of their acquaintances, even close friends, sobbing, some shook their heads. One muttered: "It is not worth it."

In an exhibition hall covering 600 square meters, more than 100corruption stories involving all ranks of cadres in the past five years were told in text and photos.

"We not only educate the visitors by condemning corruption, but also reveal their confessions to provoke thought," said Gao Xinyu, a worker with the center.

The pictures of inmates Feng Shunqiao and Dai Beijun, who were friends with many visitors, draw much attention. They once served as secretary-general of Zhejiang provincial government and former head of its environmental protection bureau.

The visitors also get to know what life is like as a prisoner by watching real-time images of the inmates' daily routine through surveillance cameras in the center.

The anti-corruption center, a three-story building set up in 2006 by provincial discipline watchdogs and judicial administrations, has served as an education base for party members. It has received more than 70,000 party cadres at all levels.

Corruption that has accompanied China's phenomenal growth has been repeatedly underlined, most recently at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Seventeenth CPC Central Committee in September by Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

Hu urged sweeping reforms in education and supervision system in the country's anti-corruption endeavors.

"Anti-corruption education, such as Hangzhou's practice, is a vital component of our anti-corruption strategy," said Li Yongzhong.

But corruption can't be rooted out without rigorous supervision and checks and balance of power, Li said.

In 2008, a total of 10,315 cases of commercial bribery were committed by government workers, involving more than 2.1 billion yuan (300 million U.S.dollars), said Cao Jianming, China's Procurator-general early this year.