http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KG26Ad01.htmlThe saying "Behind every successful man, there is a woman" has a twist in China, where it seems that behind every corrupt male official, there is at least one concubine. A top anti-graft official recently acknowledged in public that 95% of the corrupt officials netted in Beijing's crackdowns kept mistresses.
China's millennia-old culture of men keeping concubines is back, with many communist party and government officials now keeping at least one "second wife" as a status symbol or to satisfy his sexual needs.
Addressing government and party officials in the prosperous city of Dongguan in Guangdong province earlier this month, Qi Peiwen, a senior official with the party's Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection, warned officials against "beautiful women," saying that having a mistress proves an easy way for an official to become to corrupt.
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For the rich and the powerful, keeping extra-marital relations has become fashionable, particularly in officialdom. It seems that from senior party and government officials to grass roots organizers - anyone who has access to power has access to mistresses.
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The current record holder in terms of number of mistresses is Xu Qiyao, the former director of Jiangsu province's construction bureau whose death penalty over corruption was reprieved. Xu, who was in charge of infrastructure projects in the eastern Chinese province, had kept more than 140 mistresses. Anti-graft officials were astonished when they found Xu's sex diary which recorded the names of all his mistresses and his sexual experiences with them.
Corrupt officials and their mistresses has now become a target of humor among Chinese media and bloggers.
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Jin Weizhi, the general manager of a State-owned milk company who was convicted of bribery and embezzlement in 2000, once said: "Keeping mistresses is not only for physical needs. It's more about a symbol of status. If you don't have several women, people will look down upon you."
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Like most media in the world, the Chinese press laps up juicy stories about corrupt officials and their mistresses. Still, if the perpetrator remains in power, few dare to question his fidelity to his wife or his cleanliness from corruption. In the United States, South Carolina governor Mark Sanford - who almost lost his job for meeting his mistress - must be envious of his Chinese peers.
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the male war against women continues