Some people commented on-line that his lifestyle was so luxurious that Zhou couldn't possibly afford it just on his salary, suggesting the official must have taken bribes.

There are many other examples of such on-line exposure.

-- In February, an inmate was beaten to death in a "hide-and-seek" game in a detention center in southwestern Yunnan. Strong on-line criticism about poor management of detention centers forced authorities to investigate the case in a transparent way.

-- In May, a car accident killed a young man on the road in Hangzhou of eastern Zhejiang Province. The driver has come under fierce on-line criticism for drag-racing in excess of the 50 km per hour speed limit.

-- In April, seven people, including four government officials, a legislator, a teacher and a taxi driver, were tried on charges of raping teenage girls in southwestern Guizhou Province.

In all these cases netizens played a significant role in helping expose the crimes and forcing authorities to investigate the cases in a transparent way.

Cao Yi, "on-line spokesman" for the municipal government of Guiyang, capital of Guizhou, said his duty is to respond to local news events on-line, voice the government's view and exchange ideas with the public on-line.

"The government not only needs to learn how to deal with the media, but should also learn how to interact with netizens," Cao said.

Last month, tens of thousands of vendors at a wholesale market in Kunming, capital of Yunnan, protested the removal of the market.

Before public anger got out of control, the local government held an "on-line press conference" to explain how the government would respond to the incident.

The government opened a twitter-like micro-blog, the first official micro-blog in the country, to report the handling of the event so as to stem the spread of incorrection information.

Ha Siting, director of the on-line media office at the publicity department of Guizhou, said officials should actively respond to netizens' inquiries.

However, some local officials don't regard netizens' questions as "decent" or "serious."

Prof. Zhao Zhenyu of Hubei-based Huazhong University of Science and Technology said many local governments were still not used to communicating with netizens.

Zhao said it showed some officials still dealt with netizens "in a bureaucratic manner," or only monitored news instead of releasing news as well.

"Such mentality is certainly out of date and will tarnish the government's credibility and reputation," he said.