Under a new rule, Tianjin officials will have to handle all online complaints within 15 days or face disciplinary action.

The new mandate is aimed at making government staff handle public complaints properly and in a timely manner, according to the local government.

Tianjin is the first city in China to issue a 15-day deadline for official responses to netizens.

An increasing number of local governments are establishing special offices to collect messages for officials left by netizens on the new website www.people.com.cn or other websites and forums.

"People choose the Internet for its efficiency and transparency," Zhao Wei, vice-dean of the school of political science and law with Shenyang University, told China Daily yesterday.

"The Internet will play a more important role in prompting officials to better handle public grievances in the face of the blossoming of Internet users in China," he said.

The number of Chinese netizens increased by 16.2 million in the first quarter of this year, reaching 316 million, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China.

Some government staff take a hard line against people who complain, but they need to realize that online complaints should be viewed as a cushion for social unrest rather than as a nuisance, Zhao said.

He also noted some mass incidents can be avoided if people get timely responses.

Zhao's department kicked off a course earlier this year to train professionals who work for the departments that receive public grievances via calls, letters, Internet messages and face-to-face complaints.

(China Daily August 12, 2009)