Bo Xilai, former secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and a former member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Sept. 22, 2013, for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power. The severity of the punishment and the steps taken to public some of the proceedings of the trial online demonstrate the commitment of China's new leadership to fight against deep rooted corruption in the country.

The downfall of corrupt officials

Since the Party's 18th National Congress reshuffled China's top leadership last November, the Party has vowed to crack down on corruption, targeting both "tigers" and "flies" – powerful leaders and low-level corrupt officials.

Nine senior officials have been put into probe for severe disciplinary violations after November 2012, while the investigations into Bo Xilai and Liu Zhijun, the former railway minister, started before Nov. 2012.

The senior officials who have been dealt with include Jiang Jiemin, former head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC); Liu Tienan, former deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC); Li Chuncheng, former vice secretary of the CPC Committee of Sichuan Province; Guo Yongxiang, former vice governor of Sichuan Province; Wang Suyi, former head of the United Front Work Department under the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region's CPC Committee; Zhou Zhenhong, former member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and head of the United Front Work Department of the provincial committee; Ni Fake, former vice governor of Anhui Province; Li Daqiu, former Chairman of the Guangxi Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Wang Yongchun, former vice general manager of China National Petroleum Corp.

The corruption campaign has been just as relentless in dealing with officials at the local level. It has brought to justice Lei Zhengfu, a former Chongqing official who was caught up in a sex video scandal, four Shanghai judges who were spotted with prostitutes, and "Uncle House" Cai Bin, a former Guangzhou official who misused his power to acquire a total of 22 houses.

Experts have commented that the campaign is the most ruthless strike on corruption in China in 30 years.

Zhu Lijia, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said that the fall of these high level corrupt officials shows that China has sped up its anti-graft efforts, following the 18th CPC National Congress.

Plan to cage corruption

The CPC's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has issued its second five-year plan targeting corruption.

According to the work plan, supervision of official power will be enhanced, and a punishment system will be established by the end of 2017, to stop officials taking bribes.

The plan also promises to eliminate the four undesirable work habits of Party and government officials; formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance.

Inspection teams will become routine in the anti-corruption campaign. "By using these teams, the central authorities will be able to pinpoint problems in local governments," said Zhu.

Party leader Xi Jinping has stated that power should be caged by institutions, and that the five-year anti-graft program is meant to build such a cage.

Fighting corruption on the Internet

The Party has also launched a fierce online anti-corruption campaign. The Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and Ministry of Supervision have jointly launched an official website http://www.12388.gov.cn/ to improve communication with the public.

The website is designed to collect tip-offs about corruption cases, and publish up to date information about important meetings, campaigns and corruption investigations.

The anti-corruption watchdog vowed that all reports logged on its website would be protected by the law, and it will deal with revenge attacks harshly.

The Internet has become a new and necessary layer to China's battle against graft, experts said.

"Corruption tip-offs online are a new form of supervision, and they can be faster and wider-ranging than traditional media supervision," said Tang Xujun, deputy director of the Institute of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The number of internet users in China reached 564 million at the end of 2012, and there were 300 million registered users of the mobile text application Weixin, or WeChat.

Professionalizing the whistle-blowing process

The online anti-corruption tip-offs website recently unveiled its comments and complaints process. The public will be able to report suspected graft to the authorities by phone, mail, by visiting the office or by leaving an online message.

All of the complaints will be loaded into an online processing system. Officials will then read the materials and decide how to handle the issue.

The guideline also emphasized that the central commission will verify the authenticity of the information, warn the government agencies concerned, and then investigate the case or appoint a local sub-branch to do so. Regardless of what action is taken, the statement requires that the results of the investigation be conveyed to the informant once the case is closed.

"In the past, there was no way of knowing whether a tip-off had been accepted," said Jiang Ming'an, a professor in law at Peking University. "The advantage of the official tip-off channel is that it is professional and subject to supervision."

Ren Jianming, director of the Clean Governance Research and Education Center at Beihang University in Beijing, said that the detailed instructions will standardize the whistle-blowing process and avoid unverified information from the public being published.

"It provides an official channel for whistle-blowers while putting an end to rumors that could be used to slander or blackmail a targeted official," Ren said.