Like Bruce Wayne, Zhou Xiaoyun also faces his enemies in a DIY outfit — a pair of sunglasses and a mask. And while he doesn’t have access to Batman’s high technology, he has at least harnessed the Internet as a powerful weapon.

“With my sunglasses and mask, I’m a muckraker, attending public events and exposing the inside story. Taking them off, I can fade into the crowd like a nobody,” said the man who has risen to fame in China as an online crusader for public justice.

With anti-corruption speeches by China’s new political leadership ringing in people’s ears, some worship Zhou as a hero. Others attack him as someone chasing fame in the media.

The 38-year-old Guangzhou resident calls himself a truth teller, “just like the boy in The Emperor’s New Clothes,” who said that the emperor was, in fact, naked.

One of the most striking things this man, described by critics as ‘a naughty little boy,” has done was to tear off the clothes of one of China’s once most powerful government bodies — the former Ministry of Railways.

Its widely criticized website, 12306.cn, came under renewed fire after Zhou posted two contracts related to a project. They indicated that its cost reached over 500 million yuan (US$21.7 million) — considered by many to be a frivolous use of public funds.

The revelation angered Internet users, millions of whom have endured long online queues on 12306.cn to buy tickets.

Ensuing media reports even found that the successful bidder for the suspiciously costly contracts turned out to be a big client of the ministry’s affiliated companies.

Sue the ministry

“I sued the Ministry of Railways because they did not disclose the bidding information as I asked,” said Zhou, rapping the desk with knuckles. “It’s my civil right to know.”

But the accused no longer exists.

The Ministry of Railways was dissolved in March during the annual session of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature. This was seen as related to the Ministry’s corruption scandals and huge monopolies.

In early July, its former minister Liu Zhijun was given a suspended death penalty for taking bribes and abusing his power.

This is not the first time Zhou Xiaoyun has fought the authorities, like David against Goliath.

In 2012, he raised the hackles of the Chinese public and made powerful men sweat by revealing scandals like yogurt and jelly made from discarded leather shoes, and former corrupt officials reemployed by local governments.

“My targets are mainly government organs and organizations, especially those that infringe upon public interests. I never use someone’s assertions as evidence and I collect evidence through legal means, mostly from officially published documents,” he said.

On his battlefield, Twitter-like Sina weibo, he has won more than 140,000 followers, and Han Han, the Chinese cover star of Time magazine with over 10 million of his own followers, is among them.

Despite all the fame on the Internet, Zhou lives an ordinary life. In a 40-square-meter rented apartment in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, he lives with a cat, two laptops and over 1,000 books piled and scattered on the floor, the desk and the bed.

Zhou is in the vanguard of a new generation of Chinese empowered by the Internet and the will of the government to shine a light on official wrongdoings.

According to the China Internet Network Information Center, the country had 591 million Internet users by the end of June 2013, and over 500 million of them are microblog users like Zhou. More and more individuals are becoming their own personal news agencies.

In an increasingly common pattern, members of the public are reporting graft online and, as public opinion boils, judicial authorities follow up to dig out the corrupt officials. This new form of corruption busting is gaining popularity with its obvious efficiency.

Liu Tienan, former deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planning body, fell from grace after a journalist disclosed his suspected economic violations on the Internet and was put under judicial investigation in August.

Redefining moment

If the traditional anti-graft watchdogs still guard the gate for the government, the Internet is open to everyone. As a relatively independent power, cyber anti-graft is redefining China’s fight against corruption.

“It’s safer,” said Zhou, who has been keeping his personal information, including the names of schools he attended and places he works for, from the public.

Liu Zhiguo, one of Zhou’s informants, had been imprisoned three times after visiting the State Bureau for Letters and Calls, the authority handling reports of grievances against governments, to inform against the local government for reemploying former corrupt officials.

“Our positions were taken by the corrupt criminals, but no authority came to right the wrongs,” said Liu, who turned to Zhou and the Internet in desperation after nearly 20 trips to Beijing. “It was my only choice, and cheaper besides.”

Platform of interaction

Seeing the rise of the anti-graft power on the Internet, the once-secretive anti-graft organ of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC and the Ministry of Supervision, jointly launched an official website on September 2 to employ the new channel.

Wang Yukai, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Governance, said the launch of the website will make online whistle-blowing more credible and timely. It will also serve as a platform for authorities and the public to interact with each other and foster more online whistle-blowers to fight corruption.

But to whistle-blowers, the protection is more important, said Zhou, who has been fighting on the Internet under his real name and has been threatened for several times. “There should be legal mechanisms under which revenge against whistle-blowers is severely punished.”

“Protecting whistle-blowers is the best way to encourage real-name tip-offs, so that the public can report without fear,” he said.

The author is a Xinhua writer.