|
BEIJING: Nearly all of the 16 ministry-level officials recently
sacked for corruption in China kept mistresses, including
Shanghai’s former top leader who had several, state press said
Monday.
Most sacked officials engaged in illicit
activities including exchanging “power for money” and “power
for sex,” the Beijing Times said, citing a just-opened exhibition
on corruption in the capital.
“Among the top 16 corrupt officials, 14 kept
mistresses and some even kept many mistresses, like former Shanghai
Communist Party secretary Chen Liangyu and former Beijing vice mayor
Liu Zhihua,” the paper said.
“The former head of the National Bureau of
Statistics Qiu Xiaohua not only kept a mistress but also had a child
with her, violating the marriage law.”
The exhibition, organized by the state
prosecutorial body, is being held ahead of a five-yearly Communist
Party Congress, where President Hu Jintao is expected to
reinvigorate his continuing fight against graft in the ruling party.
Hu has previously called the fight against
corruption a “matter of life and death” for the party.
According to the exhibition, over 370,000
Communist Party officials have been punished for corrupt activities
in the years 2003, 2005 and 2006, the paper said. No numbers were
provided for those punished in 2004.
Of the 16 ministry-level officials punished, 10
were involved in real-estate irregularities, the paper said.
Many of the busted officials also were
investigated for gambling and laundering money, it added.
Ministry-level officials in China include
ministers and vice ministers, as well as provincial governors, vice
governors and heads and vice heads of provincial legislatures.
--AFP
|
