China's corrupt officials have more to fear from jilted lover than crackdown
Lijia Zhang says the successful exposure of corrupt officials by their jilted lovers shows up Beijing's half-hearted approach to the problem
Chinese government officials, with their formal attire and serious talk, don't particularly strike one as sexually charged. Yet it seems that just about all corrupt officials in China have mistresses. So much so that there's now a popular saying: "Behind each corrupt official, there is a mistress."
When 26-year-old TV host Ji Yingnan exposed her relationship with her former lover Fan Yue, the married deputy director of the State Archives Administration, her internet posts of hundreds of photos showing their lavish lifestyle caused a sensation.
Ordinary Chinese, like everyone else, love a juicy sex scandal, especially one involving a corrupt official. Exposure always brings a kind of satisfaction, given that the embezzled money comes from public funds.
These mistresses are just the modern version of concubines. In China, a woman having an affair is increasingly known as a - "little third", a belittling term since she is usually much younger than her patron. At a time when the income gap is widening, such mistresses are despised.
China's political system is a breeding ground for corruption and keeping a is just one of the pleasures corrupt officials indulge in. However, these young lovers can be a time bomb. There has been a string of high-profile cases where corrupt officials were brought down by their jilted mistresses.
Just last month, Wang Suyi , the former head of the United Front Work Department in Inner Mongolia, was sacked after his mistress was one of several to report the misconduct of their former lovers to the media.
