Higher-level officials under Chinese media scrutiny

Chinese media have moved to interrogate higher-ranking officials as they scrutinize the aftermath of a deadly accident in an era of reform endorsed by the new top leadership.

The People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC), on Tuesday voiced dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Civil Affairs after it repeatedly failed to respond to the paper's requests for an interview about a foster home fire that killed six children and one adult.

"We have tried to contact the related officials 15 times but there has been no response at all," the paper's official microblog account said.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the ministry had still not responded to the newspaper's requests.

The complaint of the People's Daily came after six officials in Lankao County in central China's Henan Province were suspended from work on Tuesday following intense media scrutiny and public pressure over their roles in the deadly blaze last week.

The deadly fire at the unlicensed foster home prompted concerns over abandoned children's safety and anger over the local officials' slack supervision.

Other state media also said in opinion pieces that higher-ranking officials should be punished for the fire, questioning how the suspension of the six "petty officials" could answer for seven lives.

Experts have hailed the supervisory role of China's media, saying their targets are expanding under the CPC's new leadership.

"The supervisory role of the media, especially mainstream ones, has become bigger and more visible," said Fang Yanming, a communications professor at Nanjing University in east China's Jiangsu Province.

"From county-level officials, to department-level officials, and now ministerial ones, the ranks of officials coming under scrutiny are becoming higher," he told Xinhua.

Fang observed that Chinese media now always launch a blitz against officials at the first sign of corruption or malpractice.

The list of those punished in the country's ongoing campaign against corrupt officials is growing longer, with supervision from the media increasingly highlighting the issues.

Among the officials are Lei Zhengfu, a district head in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, and Shan Zengde, deputy director of the Agricultural Department of east China's Shandong Province, both of whom were sacked following media investigations into their sex-related scandals.

"That's a growing and refreshing trend after the CPC's leadership change last year," Fang said.