Moral education needed, expert says

Providing moral education for officials has become a major task for disciplinary authorities after officials were found to have had lifestyle problems and written "promise letters" to their mistresses, judicial professionals said.

Strengthening education in government departments is necessary, as the public pays attention to morality, and corruption cases in which officials have mistresses get attention in the media, said Hong Daode, law professor at China University of Political Science and Law.

Hong made the remarks after he heard that a former high-ranking official in Shandong province was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison in a bribery scandal.

Shandong High People's Court affirmed the original judgment against Shan Zengde, former vice-head of the provincial government's agricultural department. In addition to receiving prison time, Shan also had to forfeit 2 million yuan ($326,000) in private property.

Shan's case led to heated discussion online after his handwritten "divorce promise" to his mistress was leaked on the Internet last year.

Shan promised his mistress, Su Chunyuan, that he would divorce his wife, Zhang Fengyun, within a month and then marry Su. His signature and fingerprint could clearly be seen on the documents, images of which have been reposted online since March 2013.

Shan made the promise in November 2012, and he confessed to the promise and to accepting bribes when local disciplinary authorities investigated him, Procuratorial Daily reported, adding that Shan admitted taking 7 million yuan in bribes.

Shan is not the only official whose lifestyle details have been posted online.

In October, Yu Naihuang, director of the petition bureau in Liancheng county of Longyan, Fujian province, was reported to have had a relationship with a woman for more than a year, and he promised his mistress that he would divorce his wife after his child was enrolled in a university next year, according to the website of People's Daily.

In April, an official surnamed Zhou in Quzhou, Zhejiang province, was reported to have had a mistress and promised the woman he would have sex with her four times a week and would not touch his wife anymore, the website said. The anti-graft authority there issued a warning to the 55-year-old official.

"Cases of officials with mistresses and lifestyle problems are indeed frequent. The root lies in their excessive power," said Yi Shenghua, a criminal lawyer in Beijing.

"Sometimes, they had to write promise letters because they worried their mistresses would go public with their corruption. It's like a deal between them."