By Xu Shenglan
Wuhan Commission for Discipline Inspection disclosed that 20 percent of the local officials that were investigated for corruption have mistresses, Wuhan Evening News reported Wednesday.
Out of 509 corruption and discipline violation cases that also involved five city-level cadres and 69 directors, the body gave disciplinary punishment to 608 people, sent 76 to the judicial authorities for more action and recovered 35 million yuan ($5.1 million).
The commission said some officials were addicted to gambling and women. Videos of officials gathering with mistresses were uploaded on the Internet, it said.
Experts said many corrupt officials keep mistresses and called for stringent actions to tackle the problem.
"Having mistresses is a thing to be proud of today. Some officials even feel ashamed of having no affairs," Wang Chunying, a professor of administration at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times Wednesday."
"The mistress' scandals reflect the officials' loosening moral qualities, authorities' weak supervision and many holes in the government system," said Wang. "They won't keep mistresses if the money didn't come so easily."
A former prefectoral chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Confer-ence (CPPCC) in Zhejiang Province was recently detained for corruption, and rumors said that he was a playboy with 20 mistresses.
Zhu Songhua, the former chairman of CPPCC of Longwan committee, Wenzhou, was removed from his position last month for receiving 170,000 yuan ($24,901) in bribes.
The demand for construction sand pushed contractors to fight to mine sand in the local Oujiang River, which led to corruption.
More than 10 officials from the land, geology and mining, port and shipping, water conservancy and other local departments were implicated in corruption cases, including Zhu.
"Rumors spread that Zhu Songhua kept anywhere from three to even more than 20 mistresses," a local official who declined to give his name told Xiandai Jinbao newspaper earlier.
Wenzhou city publicity department and procuratorate did not disclose details of the bribery or how Zhu abused his power.
But they refused to admit or deny rumors they have mistresses.