Corrupt Chinese Officials 'revealing Crimes to Mistresses'

Loose-tongued Chinese officials are inadvertently ending their careers by admitting corruption during pillow talk with their mistresses, according to investigators.

Private conversations between lovers revealing details of illicit dealings and exposing high-level fraud are being retold by women to the anti-corruption bureau in Dongguan, a major industrial city in the south.

"At least 80% of corrupt officials exposed in Dongguan had mistresses who gave us important information that we did not possess," the bureau's deputy director, Zhou Yuefeng, told the China Daily newspaper.

Beijing has repeatedly pledged to fight corruption, one of the major causes of public resentment and potential unrest. Earlier this week, it said the situation was "grim" and the task "arduous" as it announced a five-year plan to tackle the problem.

Proposals include more public hearings and professional consultation to improve transparency, as well as stricter internal investigation by the Communist party.

"Resolutely punishing and effectively preventing corruption relates to whether the people support you or not and to the party's life-and-death survival," said the document.

"The central government leaders of course put a lot of emphasis on this... They have anti-corruption as a high priority," said Ren Jiaming, the professor of public policy at Tsinghua University and a specialist on corruption issues.

"From our research we can see some anti-corruption as being effective - the tax problem has much been reduced, and also corruption at the customs, which is very serious but is being dealt with."

He said wider changes, such as political reform, were needed to tackle the underlying causes.

Others argue punishing bribe-givers as well as bribe-takers was necessary to curb the practice.

China's public servants regulation, which took effect a year ago, says officials must be dismissed if they are found to have mistresses.

Zhou said receiving bribes in the form of share dividends was also common among corrupt officials in Dongguan. He cited the case of the former head of a fire brigade who was jailed for five years after receiving a "share dividend" of 1.61m yuan (?120,000) from a fire prevention equipment company despite not being a shareholder. The fire chief had been rewarded for promoting the company's business.

In another case, 48 customs officers received monthly "salaries" from a local smuggling gang.

Zhou said: "A growing number of corrupt officials are trying to circumvent the law. We welcome tip-offs and we will protect and reward informers."

By its very nature, corruption is hard to measure, but it is believed to cost China billions of yuan per year. In April, Chen Liangyu, Shanghai's former party boss, was jailed for 18 years on corruption charges. He was the highest-ranking official to be punished for more than a decade.