Arrest of activist puts question mark over China's commitment to cleanup corruption

The recent arrest of Chinese lawyer and activist Xu Zhiyong has stirred up fears in the country that government might not be that serious about supporting anti-corruption campaigns against its officials.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that Zhiyong was charged with disrupting order in a public place while he was campaigning against government abuses.

According to the report, Zhiyong has fallen victim to a government crackdown on citizens who are demanding that officials be obliged to disclose their incomes and assets to help prevent widespread corruption.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has publicized his campaign against official corruption since he came to power in November last year.

However, only a handful of high-ranking officials have been detained in recent months and are being investigated for corruption, the report added.

Earlier, Zhu Ruifeng, whose blog revelations recently led to a 13-year jail sentence for a corrupt local official in the western city of Chongqing, said that his four accounts on Weibo, a social media platform, had been suspended since Monday.

Officials have appreciated the efforts of citizen-reporters such as Zhu in helping uncover corruption, but the current crackdown on activists suggests that the Communist Party wants to ensure that anti-corruption campaign should remain within the limits.