中国的互联网上不会再有“表哥”了。

Sina Weibo新浪微博上的一系列截图显示，陕西省官员杨达才在不同场合佩戴多块名表。新华社上周五援引当地官员的话报道，陕西省地方官员杨达才因佩戴多块名表及其他严重违纪问题被撤销职务。新华社说，对调查中发现的杨达才的其他违纪线索，有关部门正在进一步调查。

上个月早些时候，有人拍到杨达才在陕西省的一起交通事故现场面带微笑，此事在互联网上引发了强烈争议。在那起交通事故中，一辆客车和一辆罐车追尾，造成36人死亡。

不过，是他的穿戴很快成为中国网民关注的焦点。一些人注意到，这位职位不高的公职人员似乎戴了一块名表。中国庞大的互联网“人肉搜索”群体很快就发现，在其他一些照片中杨达才戴着各种名表，这种名表是中国一名地方官员很难用普通工资买得起的。

被批评人士称为“表哥”的杨达才发起了反击。他做出了在中国公职人员中非常罕见的举措，借助互联网直接回应批评人士。杨达才在新浪(Sina Corp.)微博账户中写道，他要对遇难者家属表示诚挚道歉。他解释说：有的同志口音比较重，有些话我听不太清楚。我让他们放松些，可能一不留神，神情上有些放松。至于名表，他向批评人士保证是用自己的合法收入购买的。

中国宣传机构似乎将上周五杨达才的落马作为鞭策当地官员加大力度铲除腐败的范例。就连高层官员也承认，腐败问题非常严重，可能阻碍中国的发展。新华社的一篇评论文章认可了公众对官员不法行为的记忆力。文章说，新的媒体报道不会使读者忘记旧的，因此政府有关部门应该面对丑闻，而不是把头埋在沙子里。

上周早些时候，互联网用户注意到对杨达才行为的调查一直未公布结果，于是围绕杨达才的讨论再次出现。

新华社的评论文章说，当地纪检部门曾承诺，若发现任何腐败问题，将加以严惩，但之后杨达才从公众视野中消失了半个月。

文章说，不过，亡羊补牢、为时不晚的是，政府还应该加强问责机制，加大力度调查违规和违法问题，而不是等待公众告诉他们去这样做。

Carlos Tejada

China's online community won't have Watch-Wearing Brother to kick around anymore.

Quoting local officials, the state-run Xinhua news agency said on Friday that Yang Dacai, a local official in Shaanxi province, had been ousted from his post for the possession of numerous expensive watches and other violations of discipline. Xinhua said officials are continuing a probe into his conduct.

Mr. Yang rose to Internet notoriety earlier last month after a photographer captured him smiling at the scene of a deadly collision between and bus and a tanker truck in Shaanxi that killed 36 people.

But it was his accessories that soon became the focus of China's online vigilantes. Some noticed the lowly public official appeared to be wearing an expensive watch. China's massive community of volunteer Internet sleuths soon found a number of other photos of Mr. Yang wearing a succession of different high-end watches the sort of time pieces a local official in the hustings would be hard-pressed to afford with a regular government salary.

Dubbed Watch-Wearing Brother by his critics, Mr. Yang went on the offensive. In a highly unusual move for a Chinese public official, he turned to the Internet to address is critics directly. Writing on his account on Sina Corp.'s Weibo microblogging service, he said he was sorry for his smile at the scene of the accident, explaining that he was having a hard time understanding the local dialect and wanted to put nervous comrades at ease. On the watches, he assured his critics that he purchased the watches 'using my own legal income.'

China's propaganda organs appeared to see the fall of Mr. Yang on Friday as an example to prod local officials to do more to root out corruption a problem even top officials concede is so big that it could hinder China's development. In a commentary, Xinhua nodded to the public's elephant-like memory for official malfeasance, saying new headlines don't make readers forget the old. 'Therefore, responsible governments should face the scandals instead of sticking their heads in the sand,' it said.

Internet users had revived discussions of Mr. Yang earlier this week after noticing that the results of an investigation into his behavior had not been released.

'Yang has been out of public sight for half a month after the local disciplinary body vowed severe punishment if any corruption is discovered,' the Xinhua commentary said.

'Better late than never, however, the governments should also strengthen their accountability mechanism, make more efforts to investigate violations of disciplines and laws instead of waiting the public to tell them to do so.'

Carlos Tejada