A government official whose taste for expensive cigarettes and very large cars triggered an online furore in China has been sent to jail for corruption.

The sentencing of Zhou Jiugeng is testimony to the growing importance of the internet in China as a forum for open debate in a country where all other media are much more closely controlled and censored by propaganda mandarins.

Mr Zhou, a former director of the property management bureau of a district in the southern city of Nanjing, was convicted of accepting 1.07 million yuan (£100,000) and 110,000 Hong Kong dollars in bribes from contractors and other officials. He was sentenced to 11 years in jail.

The downfall of the official with a position in one of the most potentially lucrative sectors of government in China came late last year after he told local media that property developers should be punished for selling flats at below cost.

That remark sparked public anger since many people were already complaining about the rising cost of buying a home. Property prices have risen so sharply across China in the last few years that the government last year implemented measures to try to cool a market that was showing signs of developing into a bubble.

The price of property is among the hottest topics in China. For decades China’s socialist system prevented people from owning their own home. However, market reforms over the last two decades have given birth to a booming property market as people rush to invest in bricks and mortar.

It is also a sector of the economy rife with opportunities for corruption as officials use their power of land allocation to obtain bribes from developers.

Within days of Mr Zhou’s remark on property prices, photographs appeared on the Internet showing him at a conference smoking cigarettes costing 1,500 yuan (£150) a carton and wearing what appeared to be an expensive Vacheron Constantin watch on his wrist. It also emerged that he drove to work in a Cadillac.

Online commentators demanded Mr Zhou be punished for that show of extravagance. He was removed from his post within days, accused of irresponsible remarks and displaying a luxurious lifestyle. However, few had expected that the Internet expose would result in a court case and a conviction.

Jeremy Goldkorn, founder of danwei – a website focusing on the media in China, said: “The Internet is the closest China has to a fourth estate. It’s the only platform citizens have for airing grievances. It is increasingly going to play a part in monitoring corruption and government malfeasance.”

Internet outrage last November forced the dismissal of a senior Communist Party official after video footage from a restaurant security camera showed him shoving the father of an 11-year-old girl whom he had allegedly assaulted. Last year, online pinion swung behind Yang Jia, 28, a Beijing man who stabbed to death six police in Shanghai. Many felt that he had been unfairly treated and, since his execution in November, his grave has been kept under police surveillance in case supporters visit. Internet users took part last February in an unprecedented inquiry after an online furore when a man died in police custody and the official report blamed his death on a violent game of “hide and seek”.

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