The Return of the Chinese Concubine?

BEIJING, Sept. 7, 2009 — -- Chinese "netizens" often use the Internet to vent their anger at corrupt officials but now they have found a new target : the secret mistresses of the officials.

"These women have no iota of morality," one Web posting read. "They only want an easy life and they avoid any hard work. They should be punished."

"They are so shameless, they deserve to be slapped," an angry blogger wrote.

Such anger was aroused by a series of reports that put a spotlight on the role of mistresses in several high-profile corruption cases.

"Behind every corrupt official is a scheming mistress," as the now-popular saying goes.

A leading official in south China, Chen Shaoji, was dismissed last month from his provincial post and expelled from the Communist Party for corrupt practices. State media reported that the high-ranking official in Guangdong province was brought down by the testimony of his purported mistress, a well-known television presenter, who spilled the beans on his allegedly illicit dealings.

In July, a court handed a suspended death sentence to Chen Tonghai, the chairman of the giant, state-owned oil company Sinopec, for taking $29 million in bribes. It would have been simply another in a long series of corruption cases in China except that the Chinese blogosphere was incensed by how the oil industry veteran used his position to help his mistress clinch some business deals with Sinopec.

Chen's mistress owned a real estate company and was able to buy land linked to a Sinopec refinery at prices below market value, according to Caijing, a business magazine known for its investigative reporting.

Moreover, the mistress provided investigators with information that led to the downfall of a high-flying city mayor, Du Shicheng. Du was the top public official in Qingdao, a scenic coastal city that hosted last year's Olympic yachting competition. The real estate company owned by the woman also happened to be based in the city.