It was minutes before the central inspection team dispatched to Tianjin municipality held a working meeting. The team members were silently scanning the meeting room with a special device to check whether anyone in the room was carrying a detectaphone. And they succeeded in finding one on Wu Changshun, the then municipal police chief who could take official measures against the central inspection group.

This scene is not a figment of imagination. It is part of The Sharp Sword of Inspection, a five-episode documentary produced by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party of China's top anti-corruption watchdog, and China Central TV, which records how central inspection teams expose corrupt local officials.

The documentary has caught the imagination of audiences nationwide since being broadcast on Sept 7. In fact, it has achieved unprecedented success in terms of influence, and won the praise of ordinary people as well as professionals.