The State Council released a circular briefing the results of the nationwide inspection on government websites conducted in the second quarter of 2017.

As of June 1, 36,916 government websites were in operation, among which 2,133 are affiliated to State Council departments, and 32 are provincial-level government portal websites.

The State Council’s general office conducted a random inspection of 524 websites, of which 94 percent were qualified, 3 percentage points higher than the first quarter. Local governments and State Council departments checked 8,616 government websites, or 23 percent of the total, with a qualification rate of 94 percent.

Disqualified websites found in the first quarter’s check were rectified, the circular stated.

The guideline for government website development was implemented. Quarterly inspection rate of websites in 13 local governments and government departments surpassed 30 percent, and all departments’ websites have opened a channel for internet users to report website mistakes.

As for government websites above county level and official websites of ministerial departments under the State Council, 96 percent had a prominent section that releases State Council’s major policies, up 6 percentage points from the first quarter, and 89 percent quoted major policies within the 24 hours after release.

In the second quarter, 8,618 valid messages were sent to report website mistakes, 97 percent of which were dealt with.

Also in the time span, 152 officials were punished or received warnings for running disqualified websites.

Supervision should be enhanced in some regions with lower qualification rates, such as Qinghai province and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, as well as in some departments with low efficiency in dealing with website mistakes, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and People’s Bank of China.

The circular also published other problems in some websites, including lack of updates right after the inspection, shutdowns without approval, and carrying commercial advertisements.

Local governments and government departments are asked to enhance regulation, promote websites’ integration, improve website functions, and rectify problems exposed through the inspection, the circular said.