The Chinese government has applied a modern solution to China’s ancient tradition of petitioners travelling to Beijing to seek justice, but a new website to collect complaints seems to have retained many of the flaws of the old system.

The numbers of Chinese who petition in search of redress ranging from compensation for seized land to justice for murdered relatives is staggering. Over 6m Chinese submitted petitions in the legally approved way in the first 10 months of 2013, according to the bureaucracy set up to receive their complaints.

In the absence of democracy, the ancient system of petitioning is supposed to act as a social safety valve, allowing subjects to complain directly to central government about regional leaders in the provinces.