How Chinese e-public feel and think about corruption: A case study of Audit Storm (Shenji fengbao – – Part I)

Corruption is pervasive, rampant, enduring, and above all else a tolerated and taken for granted social problem in China. Still, corruption is a major concern for the political leaders, general public and foreign observers. Foreigners complained about the corruption cost of doing business in China. Students took to the street and peasants staged violent protest against government corruption. The consensus is that corruption challenges CPC's legitimacy and threatens China's stability.A systematic review of literature uncovers no investigation on the Chinese people's reception and reaction to the corruption, in the net. This is a first attempt to do so.This is a research into the “feelings” and “thinking” of Chinese internet users (e-public) on (anti)corruption in China. Specially, it tries to document and analyze the comments – reaction of the e-public to news articles on various aspects of “Audit Storm” in June–July of 2004.