Leizheng Fu Case

"Leizheng Fu case" refers to an investigation on Chinese official corruption intrigued by a sex video popularized online. On November 20th at 4 pm, a series of screenshot titled "Lei, the secretary who accept the sex bribe and girls promiscuous", which records what Lei did with a female at the hotel were published on a personal website called "Civil Supervision". Leizheng Fu was the Beibei District of Chongqing Party Secretary at that time. And few hours later, these contents started to express through with microblog. Sixty-three hours later, on November 23rd, Chongqing Municipal People's Government information office official made announcement on microblog, saying that the government had proved the male shown in the video was Lei himself, who will be removed from his position and receive investigation. This case, is believed to be a result of “Network supervision by public opinion”.

Summary

On November 21, a series of indecent video screenshots and along with an article describing the corruption Zhengfu Lei have been released on the Civil Supervision website, a website managed by Ruifeng Zhu. Zhu received report material from anonymous person on November 4th. One day later, Zhu called Zhengfu Lei to ask for an interview, and Zhengfu Lei asked Zhu to send an official interview invitation letter. After receiving this letter, Zhengfu Lei called Zhu, saying “All these materials are fake, and your responsibility won’t be pursued”.

After receiving the phone, Zhengfu Lei (department level cadres) formed a task force, trying to find out who was the “Deep Throat”. No result has turned out.

After the ending of Eighteenth Party Congress in China, the leaders in each province have started to work, on November 20th 4:41, Ruifeng Zhu posted the screen shot on his website “Civil Supervision”, but few read this article. The night at the same day, JiguangXu, a former investigation journalist has posted this article on his personal microblog. Because of the popularity of microblog in China, people started to pay attention to this issue, and the visit click of Civil Supervision has dramatically increased. According to data, the number of people who at the same time logging in Civil Supervision to see the article has reached more than 20 million.

This phenomena drew the attention of other medias, and they started to interview Zhengfu Lei. on 21st, on an interview, he commented this “promiscuous video is deceitful”

On November 2:23pm, Chongqing Municipal People’s Government Information Office has microblog an information that the Chongqing Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection has taken note of relevant content, and an verification is undertaking.

On November 23, Chongqing Municipal People's Government information office official made announcement on microblog, saying that the government had proved the male shown in the video was Lei himself, who will be removed from his position and receive investigation. .

Overall, from the release of the screenshot on the Civil Supervision Website, to the final decision of removing of Zhengfu Lei, it only takes 63 hours. And it is believed to be the quickest response of official investigation.

Discussion on This Topic

The Power of Social Media

In this “63 anti-corruption”, the power of social media is embraced by many media analysts. Before this scandal, these are certain scandals similar to it. And all of them were solved ranging from half a year to one month. However, this time, within less than three days, a corrupted official is removed and under official investigation.