Most expensive website… evah

It seems the Chinese government has come true on its promise to be more transparent but appears to have forgotten the reason why. Two new websites, for the Confucius Institute and the China Trade Union, have attracted equal parts ridicule, bafflement and outrage after the Ministry of Finance announced their cost: 35.2 million and 6.7 million yuan respectively. Given that almost any website can be put together for under 100,000 yuan tops, how did so much money get spanked on one site alone? Answer: massive incompetence and no paper trail.

The two companies involved, Hanfeng Education and Hanfeng Network, were established for that sole purpose, and happened to have offices next door in the same building. The parent of the enterprise, the National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOFCL) also founded the Hanfeng companies. Having a private enterprise handle public money is a classic Chinese way of freeing up restrictions on where it all goes; no invoices have yet been presented.

NOFLC have pleaded for more time to explain, saying the colossal figure took into account “management services, development planning, technical support and software development.” With such a highly entertaining “test case,” the question is, will such obvious calumnies be exposed to the public in future, and will this in turn curb corruption and perhaps increase public faith in officials' integrity? Or will it all prove too big a stumbling block for everyone involved? Confucius say, watch this space.