Sacked officials shamed for keeping mistresses

Fourteen of the 16 ministry-level officials sacked recently on corruption charges kept mistresses, AFP reported. Two of the number, Chen Liangyu, former Shanghai Communist Party secretary, and Liu Zhihua, former vice mayor of Beijing, were said to have kept many mistresses. Meanwhile, Qiu Xiaohua, former head of the National Bureau of Statistics, only had one mistress but fathered a child by her, thereby "violating the marriage law." According to the reports, these findings are based on a newly-opened exhibition on corruption in Beijing, organized by the state prosecutorial body. The exhibition claims that over 370,000 party officials were punished for corrupt activities in 2003, 2005 and 2006. No figures were given for 2004. Ten of the 16 high-level offenders were complicit in real estate irregularities. In separate news, Chinese officials criticized foreign news reports that suggested bribers were treated more leniently than those who take bribes. One official proposed a blacklist for those convicted of offering bribes.