Compiled by Caijing staff

Citizen postings on the Internet may have brought down an official once praised as a “national labor model” in the city of Zhuzhou, Hunan Province.

Data from Web postings led diciplinary officials to launch an investigation into the actions of He Zhi, a former chief and Communist Party secretary of the Zhuzhou Food Bureau.

At an October 6 hearing of the Zhuzhou district court, He was charged with bribery, embezzlement and illegal activity that caused the loss of national assets. The total cost of all these crimes is extimated to be around 30 million yuan.

In his defense, He told the court that his work involved the reform and restructuring of the food supervision system to spur the sector’s development.

He was once laurelled as a labor model by the national food agency.

The party secretary for Zhuzhou, Yang Ping, told the newspaper Legal Weekly that citizens had posted information on the Internet describing how He sold state-owned assets for extremely low prices. The tips prompted an investigation by city disciplinary staffers, which lead to He’s trial.

The case marks the first time that Internet whistleblowers in the city were taken seriously. Yang called it a watershed for use of the Internet to fight corruption in China.

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