Nine in 10 downed China officials "had mistresses"

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese anti-graft investigators have found that 90 percent of the country's most senior officials brought down in corruption cases in recent years had kept mistresses, drawing a link between sex and misconduct.

Mistresses and "second wives" are common among government officials and businessmen in China and are often blamed for driving officials to seek money through bribes or other abuses of power.

A report by China's top prosecutor's office said that of 16 provincial-level officials punished for "serious" graft in the last five years, most were involved in "trading power for sex", along with gambling, money-laundering and shady land sales to developers, the Beijing News said on Monday.

"Nearly 90 percent kept mistresses, some keeping several," the paper said.

Among them were former Shanghai party chief Chen Liangyu, sacked last year for links to a corruption scandal involving the misuse of social security funds, and former Beijing vice-mayor, Liu Zhihua, fired for taking bribes and helping his mistress "seek profit" while in charge of Olympic venue construction.

China's former bureau of statistics chief, Qiu Xiaohua, had "not only kept a mistress for many years, but also raised a child with her", the paper quoted the report as saying.

"Most of the corrupt officials had come from humble origins and risen to their positions after years of struggle," it said.

Last month, China handed a death sentence to Duan Yihe, former party chief of Jinan, capital of the northeast province of Shandong, for killing his mistress with a car bomb after tiring of her constant demands for money.

Reports in Hong Kong newspapers last week said former Finance Minister Jin Renqing had been sacked in part for a dalliance with a local socialite, but a government spokesman said he had resigned for "personal reasons".

In June, China's Ministry of Personnel said it would automatically sack any officials found to have secretly kept mistresses, hardening a previous policy of reserving discipline for serious abuses.

China is in the midst of a crackdown on corruption which is so serious the party has warned it may threaten its rule.