BEIJING - The Internet has provided the public with more ways to participate in the fight against corruption, according to anti-corruption authorities.

In the past year, the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) has made full use of the online reporting platform, set up in 2009, to get tip-offs, Gan Yisheng, deputy secretary of the commission, told a press conference.

The number of tip-offs submitted through the Internet had substantially increased, he said.

The CCDI had also made other online efforts to collect information that might lead to corrupt officials. The officials whose misconduct was exposed through the Internet have been punished, he said.

"The CCDI is widening the way for the public to get involved in the work of fighting corruption and building integrity," he said.

Since early 2010, discipline inspection departments have exposed several corrupt officials whose misconduct was revealed by online posts.

In March 2010, Han Feng, a tobacco trade official in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was arrested and removed from his post after a diary, allegedly written by him and depicting his corrupt practices, had created a buzz in cyberspace.

In total, 146,517 officials have received Party or administrative penalties for disciplinary violations in 2010, up 5.6 percent from the number in 2009, Gan said.

Among them, 5,098 were officials ranked at county level or above and 804 of those had their cases transferred to judicial authorities, he said.

Discipline authorities nationwide have handled 139,621 cases in the past year, up 3.8 percent year-on-year, and recovered 8.97 billion yuan ($1.31 billion) in financial losses incurred by these cases.

The cases included several former provincial-level officials who were dismissed in 2010, including the former head of China National Nuclear Corporation, Kang Rixin. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in November.

China Daily