Changsha Evening News
June 23, 2009

The provincial government of Hunan is offering a cash reward of up to 10% of money recovered to citizens who expose corruption, reports today's Changsha Evening News.

In most cases, the reward will be capped at 100,000 yuan, but can be as high as 200,000 yuan for whistle blowers whose contributions are deemed "great." Previously, the maximum reward authorized by the central government was 10,000 yuan.

According to the paper's report, the Hunan Procuratorate received a total of 5,317 corruption reports in 2008, which resulted in 1,615 successful prosecutions and involved 359 million yuan worth of public funds.

In other news, the name of noted Hong Kong martial arts novelist Louis Cha (aka Jin Yong) appears on a list of 409 candidates who have applied to join the China Writers' Association.

The CWA, a formerly prestigious organization that has been slipping into irrelevance, is lampooned quite often on the press. In one recent episode, young writer Han Han said were he to become chairman, the first thing he would do would be to dissolve the CWA.

According to the paper's report, Cha's assistant confirmed to the media that he submitted his application on his own initiative. There has been speculation that Cha will be named honorary vice-chairman once his application is approved.