Last week, two unrelated but interesting developments again put the spotlight on the mainland leadership's uphill battle against rampant corruption - in particular a lack of political will and courage to push for sunshine laws to boost transparency and accountability in government.
On Friday, Lai Changxing , once the mainland's most wanted fugitive, was jailed for life for running one of the country's biggest ever smuggling operations - a case which also highlighted the depth and breadth of official graft.
One day earlier, US Ambassador Gary Locke called the Beijing Daily's bluff by making public his income and personal assets.
Understandably, both developments triggered heated online discussion about widespread corruption on the mainland.
According to a Xinhua report on the trial, Lai's smuggling operations evaded customs duties worth 14 billion yuan (HK$17.19 billion) and he was also accused of bribing 64 government officials with nearly 40 million yuan in total. Lai's case implicated several hundred central government and local officials, including a deputy public security minister, as he used money and sex to build a web of official protection for his activities.
The authorities, of course, trumpeted Lai's conviction as an example of the government's unswerving determination to fight crime and graft. For most mainlanders, however, the shocking scale of corruption - revealed by Lai's smuggling case in the 1990s - has shown little sign of being curbed and some would say it is getting worse.