The site was often shut down in its first two years over claims the government was involved in financial fraud or illegal operation, said Ye Zhe, one of the website's founders. In order to keep operating, Ye had to frequently move the servers around the country and even overseas from 2003 to 2005, the report said.

In 2005, the site published a post revealing that Shen Nuo, a Wenzhou police officer, had been involved in a hit-and-run accident while driving a car with a fake number plate. Other websites and national media picked up the story and web users expressed their outrage. Online discussion didn't end until Wenzhou's Public Security Bureau punished Shen.

The website faced cyber attacks following the incident. Huang Xuemin, another founder of the site, met senior government officials, but their talks ended in acrimony, with Huang unimpressed by their interrogative tone.

A turning point came in the summer of 2005 when the police and the website's founders reached a consensus that the key to management was to address the problems published, rather than shut down the site, the report said.

The hottest topic on the forum has become providing suggestions to Chen Derong, Party chief of Wenzhou, after he took office last year, the report said.

"I visit the site every day. Once I spot a problem, I urge the relevant department to solve it or report it to higher level," said Ke Binxiang, deputy director of the publicity department in Wenzhou's Longwan District.

Some netizens fear the site might lose its independence but its administrators insist they won't be "bought off" by government PR campaigns.