Other views: Supervisers also responsible

Electricity, crude oil, irrigation... one after another, corruption has been discovered in the local authorities governing natural resources. Such corruption is often hidden under the cover of higher threshold and technology qualities, calling for stricter supervision. Insiders say that a whole chain of corruption formed in Jiujiang, with professional agents purchasing project permits from officials and selling them to construction corporations. Dare anybody trust the quality of irrigation projects constructed this way?

Beijing Times, Sept 15

China has the second-largest GDP in the world, which brings large quantities of public investment. However, large quantities of corruption are also hidden in the investment, which has caused tragedies such as bridges that survive only one year. China needs to clean its GDP of corruption and make economic growth truly benefit the people.

Ye Qing, deputy director of Hubei provincial bureau of statistics, Beijing News, Sept 16

Whenever a corruption case is reported, local governments always claim "only a small percentage" of officials are involved. Now it has been proved it is a very high percentage. Altogether 158 officials of water conservancy-related departments in Jiujiang have been found to be involved in corruption, of which 125 are Party members. Seventeen will be prosecuted.

Cao Lin from China Youth Daily in a micro blog, Sept 16

Such widely entrenched corruption at the local level is even more of a problem than corrupt senior officials. It's no use cutting off the branch of a tree if the roots are diseased, and corruption at the local level is so deeply rooted. Big and painful structural changes will be required to meet the public's expectations.

Zhang Ming, professor of political science at Renmin University of China, nanzao.com, Sept 15

Organized corruption involving more than 100 officials has been rampant for six years in the city. What were the supervisors doing during all the years? If they did take any action, the tigers would have been punished before they could grow so big and attract so many flies. The local supervising departments should also be investigated and held responsible for their failure of duty.

Workers' Daily, Sept 16